'DOOH is the startup baby of our industry which will disrupt the overall scheme of things'

On Day 2 of the 4th edition e4m OOH Conference, experts deliberated on the topic 'Leveraging DOOH for Innovative & Impactful Media Formats'. The panel comprised Nabendu Bhattacharyya, founder and CEO, ideacafe; Alok Gupta, Director, Graphisads Ltd; Dheeraj Soni, National Sales Head - India, Lemma Technologies, and Yatnesh Pandey, VP-Marketing, GreenPly Industries Ltd and the session was chaired by Ashish Karnad, EVP – Media & Digital, Hansa Research.

Speaking on the difference between digital OOH and traditional OOH formats that are currently available in India, Soni said, “Before talking about what is different, we need to talk about what is similar between OOH and DOOH, and I think common is OOH and problematic DOOH are a complement to others available in a media mix. We have seen that the results are replicating multifold. Whenever a brand is activating OOH or DOOH, they have seen good results within that media mix. I think these are commonalities. In terms of what is different between the two is just that on OOH you can only show static images which, over a period of time, become
dead. On the other end, if it is a digital screen, you can keep on rotating that creative which can become engaging as well.

Gupta added, “I have been a part of the industry for the past 17 years ad when I started, we were a traditional OOH industry. I will be honest, when we talk about OOH as a synonym, 80 percent of everyday people will not know about OOH also; they still relate it with outdoor. But when we are taking this shift from outdoor to DOOH to PDOH, things have changed dramatically in the last three to four years. The good thing about DOOH is that there is no baggage to carry like OOH. We have some system of sales which were through agencies, through direct lines. The DOOH deals today are very disruptive in nature. They are actually behaving like start-ups. So,
to say, DOOH today is the start-up baby of our industry, which will disrupt the overall scheme of things. And in the next three to five years, the changes will be far dramatic and drastic in nature.”

Bhattacharyya pointed out, “I have to buy from both. I think DOOH has its advantages. There are brands that are built on DOOH and many OOH. The famous brand we see, is Apple. Apple, as a company, across the world, only use static media, not DOOH media. They are different, they wanted to be premium and they have done their class, aesthetic and beauty and creative – everything they brought together as an example across the world.”

Speaking from the demand side, Pandey spoke on how he sees DOOH and how it fits in his media plans. He said, “As an advertiser, we always are in between the supplier and the measurement. Before coming to why we choose DOOH or OOH medium, let me give some context. We are in the home improvement/ renovation category
where the consumer purchase cycle is long. So when you have to chase the consumer, you have to remain in this consideration for a longer time and then you have to create impact. And for creating impact, we use this OOH medium.”