e4m Webinar: Time to create new OOH touchpoints, say industry heads

The COVID-19 nationwide lockdown has greatly affected the OOH industry but apart from the hurdles brought in by the safety guidelines, the lack of help from civic bodies and the need to sustain spots by paying rental fees have been equally big impediments.

Now, with the nation embracing Unlock 1.0 and the relaxations that come with it, the OOH industry is looking forward to bounce back stronger than ever. To get industry experts to share insights on what the future holds for the sector, exchange4media hosted a webinar on the topic: Outdoor Advertising: Going into Reboot Mode.

On the panel were Anjali Krishnan, Head of Media, Mondelez India; Anisha Agarwal, Country Media Leader, IKEA India; Atul Shrivastava, Group CEO, Laqshya Media Group; Haresh Nayak, Group MD, Posterscope South Asia & President, Posterscope APAC; Jayesh Yagnik, CEO, MOMS Outdoor Media Solutions, and Rishabh Mehta, Founder & CEO, LOCAD Pte. Ltd. The webinar was moderated by Naziya Alvi Rahman, Editor, exchange4media Group.

Starting off the virtual discussion was Shrivastava who spoke about the recovery point. “We have definitely lost one full quarter. We could achieve only 20% of billings we normally do for Q1. But we are very hopeful about the remaining months. July onwards we can see occupancy being in the range of 35-40%. Then there is Diwali and the festival season which we are very confident will be the best one in the last 10 years since most clients have not spent their OOH budgets and the spends on various other mediums like events is not going to be much too. All these advantages will help outdoor. These budgets may not be 100% and maybe 20 or 50%, but nevertheless some amount will come into OOH.”

Nayak too said he could see OOH bouncing back soon. “Being a global leader in the OOH business we had access to information and were able to foresight. We spoke to our colleagues in China and a couple of other countries and anticipated the challenges ahead. We were able to plan for 60 days. The important learning is handling these three months of a gap and striving forward. For the first 35 days, we spent a lot of time training ourselves because the new normal is going to be there for four months. We looked into learning about voice modulation, how to present oneself on a video, and other such areas. There was a lot of focus on the back-end creating newer services for our clients - be it post-COVID office opening solutions or CSR work. We looked at green zones and reached out to clients. We have been working on these for the last 20 days. There will be challenges but how to overcome these is what we looked at.”

The transition to digital has been a positive outcome, said Mehta. “Stakeholders have realized the importance of going digital. Over the last 30-45 days, we have had some very encouraging and interesting talks with stakeholders and have rolled out our very interesting planning tool called ‘COVID APIs’. Now, stakeholders can visualize where the green areas are and the opportunities for them to pick up sites in those areas. Things are only going to go better and we are positive that over the next quarter or so the jump is going to be back to normal or even bigger.”

Speaking on which categories are going to be back on OOH, Yagnik stated, “FMCG is one category that has been doing quite well in terms of their sales in the past couple of months. The FMCG category of personal hygiene or hygiene (hand sanitizers, liquid soaps, disinfectant surface sprays) is also seeing growth. In these categories, there are brands that want to launch it in a big way, as per my conversations with clients. Personally, I think automobile is another sector which should do well, especially two-wheelers and entry segment small cars. This will lead to the need for advertising. Banking and insurance is also another category that should see a spike, according to me.”

Sharing her perspective from a brand side, Krishnan remarked, “Like us a lot of advertisers come to OOH when it is the festive season, starting off with Rakhi and subsequently moving on to Diwali. These are big opportunities for growth, especially in the gifting category, which is where we operate. I think it will not be the same as it used to be because there are still areas that are experiencing constraint environments. That should start picking up slowly. The festive season is an opportunity especially for brands like us because as ‘Cadbury’ we are the makers and markers of happiness. There is a lot of positivity around our brands and it is an excellent opportunity when people are coming out of a constraint environment to be there in OOH.”

Taking the discussion further, Agarwal shared her insights from a brand perspective, “When it comes to OOH it has been our best friend pre-COVID and we have seen it all around Hyderabad. We have seen it when we launched. OOH has held our hand to drive visitation to our stores and we can attribute a lot of visitation percentage to this media. For me it’s not rebooting but OOH 2.0. It is about reinventing and that is what will be an expectation as a brand. This medium will bounce back but it will be about how we do that, when do we talk to people and the new touchpoints. Innovation shouldn’t always be an add on, we have to move away from that and it should be part of the bucket. Only then can brands consider OOH as a part and parcel the way it has always been. OOH in the long term will be the emerging star.”

According to Mehta, there is a need to look at a much more integrated format and not just an OOH blue box. We need to look at various touchpoints where we can engage with the consumer.

Making an interesting observation, Yagnik said, “You have to go to the client with a solution for a problem that they are facing, rather than presenting services that you offer.”

Talking about how OOH can continue to be relevant, Krishnan said: “The bigger challenge in OOH is how to create new experiences. The rest will work out for itself. Business will come back to normal.”

Nayak also spoke about the various solutions that the OOH medium can leverage from. “In OOH, you can use shapefiles and integrate data. Hyper-local targeting and performance marketing are also available in the OOH space. We have lots of brands using data points, right from store location to data calculation.”

Concluding the discussion, Shrivastava remarked, “I have great faith in India's market. People will have needs and requirements. They will need to move out and their buying habits will come back. OOH has tremendous potential and a good future whether COVID or not.”