Hope soars for OOH as industry predicts a Q4 of revenue & recovery

2020 was a bloodbath for traditional mediums like the OOH Industry when it came to revenue filings, especially, during the initial months of the lockdown months. The festive season, however, brought a glimmer of hope to the industry. Adding to this, as more traffic mobility data was tracked, brands restored faith in the medium and notable brands started investing in the billboard space again. The Q3 quarter filings of OOH companies witnessed a 30% pre-COVID rate revenue filings and OOH leaders say that by the end of Q4, they expect it to be more than 60%-80% more in terms of the previous quarter revenue.

Giving an overall perspective on the OOH industry’s revenue filings and sharing his perspective on Q4, Amarjeet Hudda, COO, Laqshya Solutions stated, "OOH media business started improving from July 2020 for the entire industry. Laqshya Media also started executing large campaigns for big clients. Our biggest campaign in July was for Zee #13th Ki taiyyari, which set the momentum for growth in the company. The overall industry is back on its track, reaching approximately 75-85% of the top line of the pre-Covid levels. The major categories contributing to the growth of OOH are Automobiles, Mobile Handsets, BFSI, OTT, and also Real estate. We are very positive for the JFM quarter, as there are many briefs in the market and clients are also aggressively marketing, now that the vaccine drive has started. The market is also opening to its full capacity and consumers are spending heavily, which they couldn’t spend during the lockdown period."

Talking about Q3 revenue filings and expectations going into Q4, Jayesh Yagnik, CEO, MOMS Outdoor Media Solutions shared, “Q4 is looking much more promising than Q3. This particular quarter is looking like 60% to 80% more in terms of revenue billing as compared to the previous quarters.”

Atin Gupta, Managing Director, Atin OOH sharing his perspective said that in Q3 their revenue filings were at 30% of pre-COVID levels and in Q4 they are expecting to be at 60% pre-COVID levels.

Speaking about the positive sentiments developing for the revenue growth of Out-of-Home, Yagnik explained, “With the increase in mobility, the faith of the advertisers has been brought back to the OOH medium. The sentiments are very positive and with the rollout of the vaccine, and it’s only getting better day by day. All the brands want to ride on to these positive sentiments and we are seeing good traction in the number of advertisers on OOH media. The spends are increasing and the plans which were stuck or in doubt are getting implemented in this quarter.”

Gupta remarked, “The markets are opening up and purchasing is back. The lower levels of COVID-19 has increased brand confidence in general. Due to which, the outlook is positive and upbeat.”

Yagnik names the brand sectors (clients) that will help OOH companies gain the desired Q4 revenue filings: “Q4 is typically a very good quarter for BFSI categories. There are a lot of brands from these categories who have either started spending or have plans to do campaigns before the end of the financial year. We can see on the roads that Banks, Mutual funds, Insurance, etc are spending heavily on various product offerings. Apart from this, the sector that is really doing good for OOH media is real estate and this has a lot to do with media’s hyper-local reach. We are seeing traction in both luxury as well as affordable housing who are going on OOH with offers and features. Automobiles are also one of the consistent spenders this year and we are hoping that it will continue its spree till year-end.”

Gupta says sectors like Consumer Durables, Financial, FMCG will help with revenue growth.

On a parting note, Yagnik highlighted that overall Q4 will be the best quarter for the OOH industry and is affirmative that this momentum will continue going forward in the next year. Yagnik concluded by saying, “We can hope for a much better OOH AdEx next year. Amongst all the advertising media, OOH will grow maximum in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20.”