‘OOH is bringing brands and consumers closer’

At the e4m OOH conference, a panel of experts spoke on  ‘Need for Optimized OOH Advertising for an Efficient Brand Building’. The panellists were Aatika Ehsan Ansari, Head of Media-Digital, Pernod Ricard India; Ammar Millwala, Head of Media, Aditya Birla Capital ; Haresh Nayak, Founder; CEO, Connect Network Inc; Taranjeet Kaur, Head of Media, Digital and PR, Tata Consumer Products. The session was chaired by Amiya Swaup, Partner- Marketing Advisory Services, and Ernst & Young LLP. 

Before opening the discussion, Swaup talked about the FICCI Frames advertising report. He spoke about how the OOH industry has recovered to 86% in the year 2022, how terrestrial media has recovered to 59% and transit media has recovered to 41%. 

Swaup then began the session by questioning what brands expect from agencies while investing in OOH campaigns. Answering the question, Millwalla said, “The role of OOH is at the top of the funnel for Aditya Birla Capital. Moreover, we focus more on driving awareness, brand recall, and driving consumer interest. Also, agencies are helping us do strategic planning while building OOH campaigns.” Adding on to Millwala, Ansari said, “Outdoor helps our brand in maximising local brand presence while doing any event in a particular city. Also, agencies play an important role in understanding the market better before fabricating content for OOH.” 

Sharing more details on what brands are expecting from outdoor campaigns, Kaur said, “Outdoor helps in enhancing the brand’s market reach and it has become an important medium for brands, however, Outdoor is not a lead medium.” Describing how brands are leveraging OOH and how agencies are strategizing the journey of brands while planning for OOH campaigns, Haresh said, “OOH is bringing brands and consumers closer. Moreover, the data gathered from OOH campaigns is both measurable and accountable.” 

Comparing OOH with other media platforms, Millwala said, “The power of OOH is undeniable as it is driving the brand’s market reach and giving them a presence in the physical markets. Moreover, brands must understand the psychographics and travel patterns of the audience before investing in OOH campaigns.”

Focusing on calculating the ROI of OOH campaigns, Ansari said, “The mechanism of measuring the ROI from OOH campaigns is not yet defined as compared to television and other mediums. We invest a calculated budget on OOH campaigns and expect data and ROI. Moreover, brands need to understand the audience matrix to do planning more strategically.” 

Mentioning immersive Outdoor campaigns, Kaur said, “Marketers must use digital to connect consumers to outdoor campaigns. It also helps in measuring consumer data.” She also said that the OOH industry is evolving exponentially in other western nations and India must follow the innovations happening in OOH across the world.

Describing the role of programmatic in the OOH industry, Nayak said, “The evolution of digital has happened in India in the last couple of years. We as an industry need to evolve faster as compared to other countries in terms of bringing programmatic and building a digital system of measuring consumer data.” Adding on to Nayak, Millwala said, “Brands must plan their objectives while investing in OOH. Moreover, scientific planning is important to understand the media investment mechanism.” 

Speaking about the roles of OOH, Ansari said, “A few specific roles of OOH include: Driving customer engagement, building localised connect with the consumers, bringing more innovation in the advertisement and branding industry.” 

In the closing remarks, experts mentioned the key pointers which include: Improvising data measurement system to bring more ROI to the brands from OOH campaigns, bringing creative solutions and technological advancement in OOH, syndicated market research to boost overall ROI. The three pillars to drive maximum results from OOH include: Market research, technology and innovation, building trust in tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 cities.