With space getting sexier in India’s airports, malls and banks, there has been a boom in the formats available – fleets of buses and taxis, graphics on escalators at malls and airports – people have realised that outdoor is a good medium. Ronita Mitra of ICICI Bank, says: "The key is, one word: planning. Companies have to decide what the right option is. It’s all about the audience – ask what the best outdoor medium to hit that audience is?"

Innovations
Shyamlal Patnaik, a technical OOH expert at Dupont India, says: "The OOH segment in India is growing. If you go to any premium malls, you can see a combination of backlit and 3D acrylic lettering. Variable message along with static message in the structure. Plus there is the LED format backlit and the  digital screens at the city airports."

Kaushik Chakravorty, COO at Vivaki says: "The innovations that have caught people’s imagination and had impact would be the Nokia campaign at T3 airport in Delhi, the Religare campaign in Delhi, the bus campaign in Orissa, the Aircel campaign in Mumbai and the Toshiba campaign in Delhi."

Creativity
Creativity is visible in an ambience- driven location. Indrajit Sen, president, Laqshya Media says, "Advertisers look way beyond CPT (cost per thousand) conversion. It’s quality that counts."
Outdoor media specialist, JC Decaux launched a campaign for Microsoft, in what it termed as the widest airport advertising in Asia. The 90 metres in length and 2.8 metres in height campaign for Microsoft’s Cloud Power, was installed at the Bengaluru International Airport. Pramod Bhandula, managing director, JC Decaux says, "This is the point where OOH players are learning on how to get optimum revenue against the high capex spend for these formats."
 
Measurment
Advertisers have doubts about maintenance and measurement of displays in OOH space, as stated by Lintas Media Group’s Lynn de Souza in her keynote address during an OOH convention. She said, "OOH agencies should maintain the displays and provide regular updates to clients. To tackle this issue, the Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA) has readied a campaign confirmation form which will be a binding contract between media agencies OOH companies and brand owners.

Noomi Mehta, CEO of Selvel Vantage Group and chairman of the IOAA, and one of the brains behind the document, says: "The OOH industry in India did not have any standard operating procedures (SOP). It is a set of rules that the industry has felt fit to impose upon itself, from July 2011, to establish basic ground rules that can govern transactions."

Top audiences
For media buyers and advertisers the breadth of the category remains one of its advantages, but also a challenge. To some extent, particularly on high-impact road-side or high traffic sites, OOH remains a broadcast medium, offering numbers without much demographic precision.

In other categories, particularly shopping malls and airport sites, premium audiences or those defined by location or geography can be targeted with precision. Unarguably though, site expansion will increase audiences and aid improved targeting.

Future trends
Magna Global, a media researcher, predicts that worldwide spending on OOH will expand by 8.3% in 2011 to $26.4 bn. 90% of the OOH business in some countries will be digital by the end of the decade.

That’s not the Indian reality, where cheap flex dominates. As Pramod Bhandula, managing director of JC Decaux, points out: "We’ll see small format displays with design on the streets giving elevation to streetscape and street furniture concept and digital screens with interactive features that will engage consumer to the product in real time."


What the experts say about OOH


Indrajit Sen, president, Laqshya Media
The DNA of OOH is innovation. It’s the only medium that allows novel expression of brand promotion ideas that impact audiences to a great extent. That is the value of the medium – which can’t be measured properly yet – to brands. That – together with the fact that the media is available to audiences who venture outside their home – makes OOH ubiquitous and unavoidable for brands."


Anuradha Aggarwal, vice president –marketing, Vodafone
OOH with its local reach and impact becomes an attractive option for advertisers with small business footprints. There is also a lot of innovation taking place in the medium: digital screens in coffee shops and apartment complexes, magic mirrors in mall restrooms – the opportunities are endless.


Pramod Bhandula, managing director, JC Decaux
Change is inevitable. Being an outdoor guy, I work for change in OOH mediums. This would be street furniture, because it’s combined with a service for the city, its habitants and superb experience for brands. I’ve a dream to see each city have its own design and its own street furniture clubbed with a cycle-sharing scheme. This will  contribute towards environment protection.


Kaushik Chakravorty, COO, Vivaki Specialist Services
Marketers have realised the efficiency and efficacy of the medium. OOH is integral to campaign planning. This is a paradigm shift from an era where OOH was used as a recall or support medium. The OOH industry in India is Rs 2,000-2,300 crore and growing. The industry has to acknowledge the deficiencies of compliance and take bold steps to rectify them.


Noomi Mehta, CEO, Selvel Vantage Group
Internet is a useful tool to connect digital video screens (the new wave of outdoor development) for simultaneous display. It will link up several thousand small signage and other outfits. With the SOP, we’ve initiated a movement for accountability. Now it remains to be seen, how bravely and honestly all stake holders work towards achieving the stated objective."



Aircel's boat campaign


                             JCD's johnnie walker campaign


Creatives by Grey Worldwide, OOH by Pioneer


Driven by advertiser needs, OOH has expanded to tier-2 towns


Telecom and banks are the key categories





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