We need to check & moderate asset pricing for DOOH to grow further: Vinkoo Chakraborty

Vinkoo Chakraborty, President, Rapport Chrome, deliberated on the topic, ‘The Reality of Digital OOH in India’ at the 4th edition of e4m NEONS OOH Conference 2023.

Commenting on stages of growth at digital out-of-home in India, Chakraborty said, “The years that we are going through are the second innings of digital OOH in India. The first innings was way back in 2008-2009 when it started. Over a period of years, it established itself, and 2015-2016 onwards, we have seen greater traction in terms of the volumes which have come up in different ambiances across different places.”

“We have seen increased space of roadside DOOH. There is huge traction in terms of roadside DOOH across the top 25 cities. Today, as of date, Ahmedabad tops the list wherein there are more than 100 DOOH sites. All these numbers, combined together, contribute to three percent of the total DOOH in India. The place-based networks like malls, multiplexes, gyms, restaurants, etc., are contributing to 67 percent of the total DOOH, and out of this total chunk, residential DOOH tops the list. Through residential DOOH, we are able to garner significant reach across metro and tier-1 markets,” she added.

Chakraborty further elucidated the challenges of DOOH that is seen in today’s time. “The first challenge pertains to infrastructure and high pricing, especially roadside DOOH. The second challenge refers to efficiency and effectiveness and the third challenge is a regulatory framework that plays an important role in out-of-home. We need to check and moderate the pricing of assets if we want DOOH, as a medium to grow further,” she remarked.

Concluding the session, Chakraborty conveyed, “We need to have more industry collaboration. When I say industry collaboration, advertisers, creative agencies, specialist agencies and media partners need to sit together. We need to share our learning in terms of what works and what doesn’t. There is a bigger industry collaboration required to have workshops, learnings, case studies, etc. There is tremendous scope to unlock higher creativity. A lot more is possible in terms of DOOH and what all can we do and can be integrated with technology.”