Durga Puja: It’s celebration time for OOH players in West Bengal

Durga Puja has traditionally been a good season for the OOH industry in Kolkata and rest of West Bengal. Every year, brands of all hues make their presence felt by using permanent and temporary outdoor media options available in the region to connect with a large number of out-of-home audience.

Brands such as PC Chandra, Essar Steel, Asian Paints, Emami, Coca Cola and Captain TMT splurge on OOH during this time, contributing about 30 per cent of the annual earnings of OOH industry in the state, say industry experts.

According to Charanjeet Singh Arora, Co-Ceo, Kinetic India, during Durga Puja, West Bengal becomes a priority market for most of the retail brands.

“Majority of the eastern part of India is in a celebratory mood during this time and everyone is out shopping for the festival. Hence, any kind of OOH placement provides a great deal of mileage and visibility. It also helps add to the numbers in terms of brand recall and increased sales. Thus, it is safe to estimate that the OOH industry witnesses a substantial amount of spends during this period,” shares Arora.

Rohit Chopra, COO, Times OOH, says the festive period in India is considered to be auspicious for making high involvement purchases across categories, especially gold and real estate. It also witnesses high sales activity in the retail and consumer durables, thereby making these three months crucial for companies in these sectors to gain double digit growths, he explains.

Arora points out that a lot of retail, FMCG and jewellery brands use OOH. “More often, large retail brands such as Pantaloons, FBB, Max, and FMCG giants, or even jewellery brands use OOH to drive traffic towards their stores and target maximum sales during the auspicious period. OOH helps create a retainable impact on consumers. The larger-than-life creative communications create an emotional bond with the audiences, reinstating the spirit of the festivity. Thus, making the brand more likeable, even post the festive phase,” he opines.

According to Chopra, BFSI sees growth during festivals because this time is right for them to launch shopping and other schemes for payments through their cards.

“E-commerce players such as Amazon and Flipkart run their yearly mega discounts and tap our OOH properties due to the presence of relevant audiences who use these shopping apps in huge numbers. Other categories such as real estate go big with various offers and schemes like cash discounts, no registration/stamp duty schemes and other flexi payment plans during this period. Consumer durables and handset brands also go heavy on OOH during festive season to attract buyers with lucrative offers introducing cashbacks and easy EMI schemes,” he elaborates.

Not just FMCG giants or jewellery brands, in fact, regional OTT players also splurge on OOH during this period.

Ahana Kanjilal Dutta, Head-PR & Marketing, SVF, hoichoi, says, “Like other years, hoichoi is not behind this time too. The city has started to look red with hoichoi billboards all around with quirky lines to grab hold of audience’s attention. We have used innovative creatives and quirky lines to catch eyeballs in midst of every other brand putting up outdoor branding during this festive season.”

“So, no matter where you are going pandal hopping, this Pujo, hoichoi will be visible, through 100 Uber cabs plying in the city and 700 banners put up all across the city. hoichoi will also be there to grab your attention if you are going to watch a movie at a theatre. We are playing content trailers and slides for the cinema going audience this pujo,” she informs.

That's not all. If you are not able to make it to Kolkata this year, hoichoi will also be present at pujos happening in Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.

With so many brands competing for visibility, Emami doesn’t want to be left behind. “This year, Emami Agrotech’s launch of a range of spices ‘Mantra Masala’ under the brand umbrella of Emami Healthy & Tasty coincided with Durga Puja festivities. And thus plays a major part in our festive promotional activities. Food is always an integral part of any festivity and Durga Puja for Bengalis is no exception. Brand Emami Healthy & Tasty has been positioned with a strong connect with the Bengali culture and so is Durga Puja. The biggest festival for Bengalis is the perfect platform for the brand to connect to its TG through food and festivity,” says an Emami spokesperson.

“Brand communications, during festivities, are targeted to strengthen brand loyalty and spread wider brand awareness. During festivals, people go outdoors, enhancing the chances of higher brand visibility. Festival time communication drive has been found to be helpful to reach out to wider audience at one go,” adds the spokesperson.

So what kind of format sites do brands opt for during Durga Puja-- billboards, bus shelters, kiosks or gantries?

“For Emami Healthy & Tasty, we are doing a variety of OOH activities, ranging from doing branding on around 20-25 AC buses and 10 trams in Kolkata, to putting up about 50-60 billboards at various strategic locations in Kolkata, Howrah and the fringe areas of the city. The brand will also put up about 200-250 temporary puja banners across all smaller satellite towns in and around Bengal. We are also running a brand campaign titled ‘Shera Bhog’ (best prasad competition) in 15-20 housing societies in Kolkata,” the spokesperson shares.

“Apart from Emami Healthy & Tasty, one of our personal care brands Emami 7 Oils in One will also feature on banners at 7-8 puja mandaps in the city. The brand recently roped in Katrina Kaif as its new ambassador and we hope that the strong celeb connect and OOH promotion during this time would ensure greater brand visibility.”

According to Charanjeet Arora, most brands prefer opting for large impactful billboards. “Second in order, especially in Kolkata, is digital billboard. This is followed by overhead gantries and complemented by small formats used at various intervals to build frequency. Indulging in the festive fervours, clients also opt for pandal and stage branding across Durga Puja venues.” 

This brings us to the most important point--what kind of spike does OOH observe during this time of the year? 

“There is a considerable spike in advertising spends in the third quarter: starting from Navratri in October going up to Christmas and New Year’s eve in December. Times OOH properties, on an average, observe a growth of around 30 per cent. This is the right time to offer discounts and offers to customers, and since our properties reach out to high spenders, this growth is natural,” says Rohit Chopra, COO, Times OOH told us.