A reliable measurement matrix, digitization, innovation clubbed with creativity, consolidation, transparency - the sector needs all of these to be more attractive to advertisers
By Simran Sabherwal and Saloni Dutta
(with inputs from Aliefya Vahanvaty)
When Ancient Egyptians used tall stone obelisks to inform people about laws and treaties, it was probably one of the earliest forms of Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising. Today, despite the emergence of other forms of advertising, OOH remains an integral part of any media plan. Backing this is the fact that conventional Outdoor surpassed expectations and grew by 13% in the last year (the Pitch Madison Advertising Outlook, 2014 had predicted 7% growth). However, OOH’s share in the overall ad pie has fallen from 8% in 2008 to 6% in 2014, and it is expected to maintain status quo in 2015. So, how does the oldest form of traditional media garner a larger share and be a more attractive proposition to advertisers? Here, we have industry stakeholders talking on what’s holding back the sector and what it can achieve in the digital era.
OOH: An Impact medium
Today, OOH even allows consumers to “touch and feel” a product and high impact installations can help in purchase decisions of consumers. OOH players also argue that OOH is an attractive proposition for advertisers as it is a genuine mass medium. Giving the advertiser’s perspective, Ronita Mitra, Senior VP, Brand & Consumer Insights, Vodafone India says, “OOH is no longer only a reminder support medium. It has its own value in a media plan and allows more localized branding. With emerging technologies, visually it has improved by leaps and bounds. Sheer size and scale allows it to create impact. Production timelines are much shorter compared to other mediums, therefore it is easier to mount a campaign at short notice.”
Betting big on OOH, Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) acquired Milestone Brandcomm in 2014. With Posterscope and Brandscope already in its portfolio, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO South Asia - Dentsu Aegis Network, Chairman Posterscope & psLIVE - Asia Pacific says that DAN is not just the market leader but a dominant player in OOH. “We have 35-40% of the entire organized market and the reason we are investing heavily and have done so well in the figures is because we believe that OOH is not being effectively used by brands,” says Bhasin.
OOH has always been useful to brands and the introduction of new formats has helped the transition from a reminder medium to playing a much larger part in brand recall and brand visibility, feels Anita Nayyar, CEO - India and South Asia, Havas Media. She adds, “There is a lot of innovation that has come into the format from regular flex to innovative opticals to digital OOH to OOH in residential areas and office complexes to the cyber hubs and mall activations – so the options and the formats have expanded. It has changed the landscape of the medium and the way in which it can add value to brands. At the same time, the sector is still unorganized and we are far away from what is happening in OOH abroad. But that also means the potential is immense.”
The new launchpad
Amul is probably the best example in the Indian context of building a brand effectively using OOH. Of late, companies, particularly in the realty and e-commerce space, have used OOH extensively in their launch campaigns. Radio cab service Meru has used OOH to mark its entry to each new city. Says Rathin Lahiri, CMO, Meru Cabs, “We use outdoor whenever we launch in new cities, do any local targeted promotions, etc. In large cities, there is too much clutter, premium sites are priced prohibitively and require huge investments to be visible. We use our own cabs for what we call cabvertising and that has worked extremely well for us.”
Real estate portal Housing.com is an example of an e-commerce player using the OOH medium extensively across the six metros. Housing.com has, in fact, omitted Television from its media plan. Explains Pratik Seal, CMO, Housing.com, “Every campaign has one factor, measurability and then there are certain other KPIs that you have to measure. Saliency and traffic are important for a digital platform like us. We felt OOH worked very strongly in both the parameters. Owing to its larger format, it has that impact and you could do micro-targeting with OOH as a medium as opposed to any other medium. So 30-35% of our ad spends have been on OOH, 30-35% have been on Digital and the rest has been in Print.”
Measurement quandary
With the marketer accountable for every rupee spent, ROI is the primary goal, and that’s where the OOH industry faces a challenge. Calculating ROI on marketing spends is difficult with no clear currency in place. Arghya Chakravarty, CEO, Times OOH, says, “Till the time the industry establishes a strong ROI driver, OOH will not become the mainstream medium and a top priority of brand managers. OOH is ‘perceived’ to be expensive media vis-à-vis other media. But in reality, it is very effective in reaching out to the target audience.” Adds Nabendu Bhattacharyya, CEO & Managing Director, Milestone Brandcom, “OOH stakeholders should come together and address some of the important issues like accountability through real time monitoring, measurement/common currency for OOH at a pan India level; self-regulation in the industry leading to exit-entry barriers as well as consolidation, and work towards giving OOH an organized industry status for brands and marketers to regard it as an important medium which can’t be overlooked.”
Commenting on the cost of OOH advertising, media planners say that though clients are willing to spend on OOH, as they demand maximum value for money, OOH can fall behind as it’s not a completely organized medium. Speaking on spends, Suresh Balakrishna, CEO, BPN (India) & CEO, Rapport, IPG Mediabrands says, “In our agency, almost 10-12% of a client’s budget goes towards OOH. It may start lower as a reminder medium, but when clients see how effective it is, they want to stretch it for another few weeks or months, go to other locations and eventually, it ends up constituting 10% or more of a client’s overall budget.”
Focus on tech & digitization
In India, there are hurdles that prevent OOH from getting digitized and the challenge lies in marrying OOH with Digital to make it effective and relevant. Digitization can only be done in controlled environments, given the risks of pilferage and a digital OOH screen can’t be kept in an unprotected environment, like on the roadside, but necessarily have to be at places like malls or airports. This limits the numbers and becomes more of an innovative thing to do rather than an effective one. Despite these challenges, digitization in OOH in India needs to be cracked and that too quickly. However, OOH players say that while the best-in-the-world technology is available in India, what is lacking is the will to invest the money in it.
While the technological upgrade also allows innovation, Noomi Mehta, Chairman & Managing Director, Selvel One Group believes that is a term that’s been widely abused. He says, “Innovation is pointless unless it has scalability and can be replicated across the board in more than 200 sites. An innovation on one or two sites, means it is purely to get an award or some sort of recognition. Doing a mega innovation and getting spoken about on social media is the way to go. This has to be done on an extremely huge and ambitious scale for it to take root and success.”
But, advertisers are betting on innovation. Niladri Datta, Head Corporate Marketing, LG India, says, “For all our communications, the OOH medium has been a very integral part of our media mix and as a brand that aims to reach out to the maximum consumers with our innovative technologies, we are very active with OOH. Alongside our technological range, we are using innovations like backlit 3D acrylic cut-outs, providing us excellent visibility even at night along with the regular outdoor advertising modes.”
Lack of creativity is another challenge the sector faces, and creatives need to be made specifically tailored as against recycling Print ads for billboards, which are hard to read when you are travelling at high speed. This highlights the opportunity for innovation, particularly to connect with the youth, and showcases the immense possibility in connecting new age technology with old age locations. Creative agencies should create OOH medium specific content and creatives, to make OOH communication relevant to the brands in conjunction with other media channels, viz., TV, Print, Radio and Digital.
The Way Ahead
Though Digital and LED in outdoor advertising are yet to take off in a significant way in India, stakeholders are excited about the future of the medium. Harkirat Singh, MD Woodland, says, “I see OOH becoming more innovative in terms of working with mobile - the interactivity with all your devices (smartphone, tablet, laptop and now thanks to Apple, your watch!). The connection between consumer and product will continue to grow. It’s an exciting time for OOH. The flexibility of digital technology solutions and advancements that make advertising instant will pave the future of OOH.”
Currently, though seven to eight players account for 50-60% of the advertising revenues in OOH, the industry is highly fragmented. Industry experts say that the business badly needs consolidation, as that will give it the financial strength necessary to overcome the lows. While there have been some consolidation, most of the money that has come in has fragmented the segment further. In other words, JC Decaux and Times OOH developed new mediums – bus shelters and airports – thereby, fragmenting the pie further. The lack of an entry barrier is also a cause of concern, feels Mandeep Malhotra, President, DDB MudraMax. “This is an industry which has no barriers, which is a strength from an entrepreneurial point of view, but technically, it is a barrier because then people don’t put quality, they don’t install things with the required pre-requisites, so education and entry barrier are the two major challenges,” he explains.
“The fragmented market poses a serious concern for the industry,” says Pramod Bhandula, Executive Chairman, JCDecaux India. “The consolidation of media along with strict policies and regulations governing the industry is the need of the hour and can definitely make the OOH sector grow by leaps and bounds. This also calls for self-regulation from within the industry along with implementation of these policies,” he adds. Working with the government on critical issues like tendering an inventory is another area of concern. Says Haresh Nayak, Regional Director, Posterscope Asia Pacific, “In terms of trade and the quality of inventory which is available, the government needs to play a critical role in uplifting the inventory or the quality of the medium itself. Talent is also a critical part. We don’t see many people choosing OOH as a career or aspiring to be OOH professionals. These three ideas, if implemented, will help OOH add more value to the brand.”
CURRENCY FOR OOH
The Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA) is looking to address the measurement metric issue and is working towards building an Audience Measurement System for Outdoor Media. The metrics will conform to the global ESOMAR (World Association for Opinion and Market Research) guidelines for OOH metrics. A Joint Industry Council called Out-of-home Media and Audience Research Council (OMARC), similar to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), with all concerned stakeholders, i.e., OOH media agencies, specialist agencies, advertiser bodies and major advertisers on board will lead the project and jointly own the study. Measurement will be on ‘Likelihood to see’ OOH site, as against ‘Opportunity to see’ currently used. The ‘Eye-On’ ratings, involving eye-tracking studies, provide the actual numbers that are likely to see the site. On completion of the study, the OOH industry expects that it will be comparable to the other mediums.
Feedback: simran.sabherwal@exchange4media.com
