‘OOH is at an inflection point, poised for superlative growth if we get it right'

The present-day out-of-home media offers advertisers and agencies immense opportunities with fresh technologies, novel formats, and enhanced imaginative strategies to extend the reach of their message. On the Day 2 of the 4th edition of exchange4media group’s NEONS OOH Conference 2023 held recently in Mumbai, OOH industry stakeholders came together to explore avenues for brands to harness the potential of outdoor advertisements and maximize the benefits derived from them. The event saw an insightful Fireside Chat on ‘Transforming OOH Landscape’ between Ajay Mehta, Founder & MD, Interactive Television & MD, Kinetic India and Rajeev Dhal, COO, AdOnMo, who chaired the session.

Dhal started the session by noting the transformations made in the OOH landcape in recent years and asking Mehta his thoughts on the change and what the future holds. Sharing his views on Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH), Mehta said that it’s an often misunderstood concept even within the OOH industry. “Most of the time if there’s a screen put up at any place, people assume that it’s digital OOH, but for me it’s not. All we are doing is changing a static image to a video or a gif- but that doesn’t really qualify.”

He continued, “For me, anything which is powered by adtech, where technology is an enabler to make it more contextual, make it more relevant – that is Digital OOH.” Going by that prism India is still at a very early stage in the DOOH journey, he stated.

Talking about why the OOH industry in the country has not seen major growth in so many decades despite being the oldest medium around, Mehta cites the lack of measurement around this segment of the media, and the lackadaisical attitude of the industry overall. “We did not move with the times into the digitised world,” he said.

Delving into the data side of the DOOH business, Dhal probes Mehta on how does he see the data story shaping up with regards to a “third party layer of validation”. “How do you see this happening across a larger expanse of OOH- data coming into play, data being utilised and data being trusted?” Stressing that the relevance of data or “location data” to Out-of-Home advertising cannot be overstated, Mehta said that OOH is nothing but “location-based advertising”. Getting third party verification is an essential – and not just from anyone, but from an extremely credible source, and that’s a given, he emphasised.

Elaborating on the potential of Digital OOH and data intervention, Mehta said it can make this “oldest medium” the newest. “We are at an inflection point, if we get it right we are poised for ten or even twenty years of superlative growth.” If we get it wrong, he however cautioned, we are going to be living in a flat industry with hardly any growth in an archaic way of functioning.

Citing the challenges in terms of growth of the industry with regard to ROI modelling & the lack of data which will bring to attribution, Dhal questioned about the way forward for the industry. Underlining that it is a responsibility as media owners & agencies to provide ROI to clients, Mehta said that if we don’t we would be doing a disservice not just to the client but to ourselves, and the industry will never grow. “When someone invests in our medium it is our responsibility to showcase what we deliver for them,” he asserted. For that to happen, it was important to upskill and upgrade and bring the entire ecosystem into the digital and data-driven world.

Both the industry leaders agreed that the industry needs to come together to identify parameters on which audience can be measured, adding that adoption will be a function of knowledge and acceptance of change around. The two leaders also touched upon the growing significance of A.I. across media and its potential application in OOH advertising.