'OOH has the scope to be mainstream'

Industry leaders including Jignesh Dawda, VP – of Marketing, Bandhan Mutual Funds, Pradeep Srinivas, GM-Head Marketing, Mercedes Benz, Saibal Biswas, Head of Marketing, Partnerships & Public Relations, MediBuddy, and Ashish Bajaj, Chief Marketing Officer, Narayana Health deliberated on ‘The World of Dynamic Macro Advertising and Where OOH fits in’ during the e4m NEONS OOH Conference organized on 18 May. The panel discussion was moderated by Rachana Lokhande, Founder, Glocal Bridge.

Commenting on the role that OOH plays in his overall marketing mix, Narayana Health’s Ashish Bajaj said, “Usually hospitals draw patients from a 20-50 km radius so our marketing strategy has to be hyperlocal, which is where OOH plays a dominant role. We have seen our top-of-the-line awareness and OPD footfalls going up as a result of such hyperlocal outdoor campaigns.”

For Medi Buddy’s Saibal Biswas, the importance of OOH lies in reinforcing the message contextually. “We have around 800 top Indian corporates using our services and many of them are not even aware that they have access to it for free. So for us to ensure that their employees are reminded to use their wallet for medicine deliveries or health checkups and doctor consultations, putting up outdoor ads in tech parks serves as an excellent reminder.”

“Mercedes Benz employs it as a pure branding mechanism because it provides the most clutter-free environment as opposed to digital which is the most cluttered. OOH is effective and quick,” commented Srinivas.

Talking on a lighter note, Jignesh Dawda added that while all other mediums can be ignored or skipped, you cannot close your eyes to a hoarding on the highway. “It is also the only medium that can also be coupled with CSR activities like sponsoring some infra- like a garden or circle (intersection) etc, that have a huge impact.”

As the discussion steered towards how marketers can leverage the advancements in the digitization of the medium, Srinivas shared how Mercedes Benz uses customer pin codes to carry out targeted campaigns in societies with a high concentration of buyers to increase sales. According to Biswas, it gives the opportunity to reinforce the brand message in more creative ways that are far more clutter-breaking and hence effective. Dawda, however, pointed out the moral dilemma of using overly distracting ads on highways, even as he agreed that they are great in places with higher pedestrian traffic.

Quizzed about their expectations from OOH on the data side of things, the panellists unanimously emphasized the need for a common metric or currency for measurability and standardization of rates across the industry.

“Unlike TV or Digital that have defined metrics, the difficulty in measuring the effectiveness of OOH campaigns is what’s holding it back,” said Biswas. Adding to the conversation, Dawda stated, "Not just post, OOH also needs ‘pre-data’. Standardization of data and rates is required for us to evaluate and select outdoor locations based on their impact. I think that OOH can give digital a run for its money if these two things can be achieved.”

Summing up the session Lokhande reiterated the need for effectiveness, transparency and measurability. “We do have the data, but the industry needs to come together to see how it can yield results. Out-of-home is undergoing a transformation which needs to be integrated at different levels. While the data has been launched, it has not reached the advertiser yet. But it is working. It is being slowly adopted. So, I see that OOH does have the scope to be part of the mainstream, to be part of the omnichannel assets; Not just for brand building, but with the digitization of out-of-home and with more and more place-based media, it can also be part of performance marketing.”