The Re-emergence of Outdoor Media

June 29th, 2012 | Posted by vrittivaani in Articles and Opinions - (2 Comments)

Mr. Kunjesh Parihar, MD and CEO, Ad Space Mart (Mumbai) provides a marketers’ perspective on the effectiveness of OOH beyond India’s metros

Considering the lagging power situation in several states inIndiaas well as how low literacy levels are, OOH has emerged as the perfect medium to reach village folks. It is particularly efficient for marketers who need to localise their communication. Traditional OOH like hoardings are extremely affordable when it comes to non metros and have no power requirements during the day. However, traditional OOH cannot be controlled; its lack of flexibility is its biggest handicap for advertisers. Fortunately, DOOH networks that comprise digital audio and audio-visual networks fill these gaps by meeting a spectrum of requirements demanded by advertisers for their campaigns in non-metros.

 Far Exceeding the Effectiveness of OOH

Modern breakthroughs in DOOH enable advertising to be completely controlled and managed from a remote location. This unique form of outdoor effectively overcomes all the barriers of traditional outdoor, becoming an agent of change in the OOH advertising space. Along with these virtues, cost and time efficiency makes DOOH an alluring medium. This effectiveness and efficiency comes from the DOOH network’s wide reach to 100 million people, at less than a paise per person. Due to guaranteed listening its impact becomes 100%, while its cost is 10% of the cost of other traditional medium like TV, radio and print. Since the medium has an added advantage of reaching out to media dark areas through audio, effective communication is ensured notwithstanding the local level of literacy.

Ensuring Greater Impact

In order to be impactful, the DOOH communication should be localised and customised considering the sentiments of local people. It should empathise with social issues and problems and acknowledge events in the region. By employing local brand ambassadors, a powerful connect can be built with rural populations. These criteria works particularly well for advertising of telecom services and mobile phones; banking and insurance; agriculture and rural industry related products and services; consumer durables including vehicles and finally FMCG goods.

Summing Up

Traditional OOH is still ranked fourth with respect to advertisement budgets after TV, print and radio since it has been unorganised and lacked control so far. DOOH innovators like Vritti i-Media are working towards making outdoor a bankable medium, and make it a priority area. While OOH can never be a stand alone medium, new-age DOOH networks boast of several success stories; the likes of Gujarat Tea Traders and SBI, where there were no other traditional media used by clients. FMCG Company Kirti Gold has completely relied on Vritti i-Media’s DOOH media, and does not use any other traditional medium for publicity.

As marketers, we should allocate 25% of our budget for OOH. It is only about 5-10% today. The medium has the potential to go a long way in bringing rural India into the fold of consumerism.

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Key elements for a successful OOH campaign

June 9th, 2012 | Posted by Veerendra Jamdade in From the CEO's desk - (2 Comments)

Most marketers these days acknowledge that the largest, most challenging as well as the most lucrative consumer groups today, reside far beyond our metros. More and more people are recognising a truth about Indiathat Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation, noticed decades ago—that it is a country with boundless potential at the grassroots. Indeed, the consumer market is not only growing but becoming more sophisticated in our hinterlands due to a rising standard of living in small towns and villages. A recent study by MART shows that milk supplement brands like Bournvita and Horlicks and a variety of electronic goods have now made their way into rural households. According to Hindustan Thompson Associates’ research arm, IMRB International, in the FMCG category, milk food and drinks has witnessed tremendous expansion in rural volumes to 41% in 2011 over the previous year. Better options in healthcare, real estate and education are auguring this hunger among the emerging consumer class. These signs are promising because they signify an important shift in the Indian consumer market.

Choosing the right medium

Given this backdrop of golden optimism, the problem that most marketers continue to face revolves around attracting this consumer group. To create a bridge, marketers firstly need to understand the rural mindset and tap the right nerves. For instance, modernisation or not, Indian villages continue to suffer gaping inequities relating to infrastructure. The availability and adequacy of power continues to be a pressing concern in small towns and villages. Given such handicaps, advertising to this population through TV channels like Doordarshan cannot guarantee visibility. On the other hand, it is possible to create alternative touch points. In small towns and villages, locals are seen regularly travelling intra-district or further for studying, employment, shopping, legal work or business. The opportunity to reach them while they are on road can invaluably help advertisers connect to the masses. In fact, advertising on a local level has a better chance to connect to people than through TV and cable. It enhances not only brand visibility, but also brand loyalty. For instance, Vritti i-Media’s OOH audio network medium has helped advertisers draw impressive enquiries. Given lower literacy levels, such media also allow masses to easily grasp audio and visual content better than newspapers.

Creating a memorable campaign

Speaking of OOH, hoardings, information boards, ST bus panels, public vehicle branding, pole kiosks and audio networks for announcements at ST bus stands are among the most successful offerings of Vritti i-Media for rural reach. These modes offer fabulous opportunities to advertisers to communicate interact and engage with people when they are on the move for work, education or recreation. Yet, the real challenge is styling OOH or Digital OOH (DOOH) communication to aptly convince the audience. So, it is important for communication to be different, unique and relevant. A right balance should be created between disseminating and withholding information, with regard to the advertisement, so as to create curiosity about the brand.

For effective OOH, the core idea should be simple and easy to grasp. The OOH campaign should be unique and clutter-free, while the theme should resonate with the social fabric of the region to trigger mass sentiment or a wow factor. Vritti i-Media’s Digital OOH audio network at ST Bus stands, for example, garners plentiful interest of its captive audience as it integrates advertisements with content of public utility. Since advertisements are meshed with bus arrival and departure announcements, it engrains the advertising message in the minds of alert travellers, presumably people who impact buying decisions in their households. This is a very innovative concept and has worked well for several prominent brands inIndia.

Rural insight

An interesting case is that of 9X Jhakas, a newly launched Marathi music channel. Since the intent was attracting residents of small towns inMaharashtra, Vritti i-Media adopted a cent-percent OOH approach for them. To this end, an MSRTC bus was hired and embellished with the brand identity of 9X Jhakaas. The bus was then used to provide free rides to commuters. Audio announcements as well as hoardings and sign boards were further put up at MSRTC bus stands to inform masses about the free rides provided by 9X Jhakaas. The point was to garner significant captive audience through the rides for ensuing engagements with them during their travel by the bus, which included quiz contests and music shows. Participants were awarded a range of freebies. The initiative was a true 360-degree awareness connect through an outdoor medium for rural masses and its success helped 9X Jhakas reach out to more than 15 target districts in Maharashtra.

Given the growing dynamism of life in metros and beyond, such a 360-degree integrated approach can immensely impact consumers. Appropriate implementation of an integrated marketing strategy will vary as per industry vertical and dictate which medium will have greatest impact when coupled with OOH. For instance, FMCG sector loves to combine outdoor with TV, while banks go for a 360-degree approach by roping in TV, newspaper, radio and outdoor media. Today, DOOH media such as Vritti i-Media’s audio and audio-visual networks bring both, time and cost efficiency to the table. They are the very embodiment of dynamism in rural advertising today and are extremely affordable as well. Given the invaluable benefit of reaching consumers inIndia’s remotest areas, the relevance of DOOH will only increase in times to come.

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The surprise element in a Digital OOH ad campaign is a must!

January 18th, 2012 | Posted by Veerendra Jamdade in Media Coverage - (1 Comments)

“Digital OOH will grow by leaps and bounds in this decade. According to the recent PWC Report, the OOH advertising industry in India will grow minimum at the rate of 30%-35% in the next few years. In today’s world No of screens/LCD do not matter. What matters is the strategic location at which the screen is put up, how many people it can reach and what kind of content it carries and how well it can engage and interact with the TG. The surprise element and uniqueness in Digital OOH is a must.” says Veerendra Jamdade, CEO & Director Technical, Vritti i-Media.

In this one on one with Veerendra MediAvataar.com tries to find out all about one of the oldest medium in its new digital beginning.

1. OOH is an oldest medium yet so unorganised, what’s you take on it?

OOH advertising on hoardings, bus panels, fleet cars ,Bus stand branding etc are dictated at the city/metro level where  the municipal  corporation gives contracts to local players in every city  turning many small vendors into media owners/. This has resulted in OOH being so unorganized. Moreover advertisers find it difficult to control and track the outdoor media as it does not have the desired transparency and thereby creating fear in the minds of advertisers about OOH advertising and its execution.

2. Digital OOH is extremely popular worldwide, how is it shaping up in India?

Digital OOH will grow by leaps and bounds in this decade. According to the recent PWC Report, the OOH advertising industry in India will grow minimum at the rate of 30%-35% in the next few years. In today’s world No of screens/LCD do not matter. What matters is the strategic location at which the screen is put up, how many people it can reach and what kind of content it carries and how well it can engage and interact with the TG. The surprise element and uniqueness in Digital OOH is a must.

3.The clients that you service, what make them chose digital OOH medium for taping the rural audiences?

Our uniqueness is the digital audio part in our medium clubbed with content i.e.  The passenger information system announcing the bus departure and arrival timing. This information is very relevant for a MSRTC bus traveller resulting in 100% guaranteed listening. Also advertising on MSRTC bus stands help our clients to reach 10.3 crore people per month on an average. Unlike radio, this medium does not provide an option to change channels to the listeners.  This medium is dynamic in nature and the content can be customised according to location/region or based on the season pattern.

4. Still India’s major population is in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, do you think that audio and audio visual outdoor medium has a good impact on these cities?

Yes audio medium has a great impact on Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. This medium gives high reach, compulsory listening and dynamic content. Our customers like Lokmat, KBC (SET India), Star Plus, Star Pravaah have fully exploited all these features to get maximum mileage and impact amongst small town people.

5.Throw light on the kind of campaigns Vritti i-Media has come up with?

a. Lokmat- the Lokmat campaign was taken up to drive sales at newspaper stalls. Daily news headlines were announced across bus stands from 6 AM onwards. The concept was of broadcasting the headlines and motivating people to buy Lokmat newspaper from stalls. It has been borrowed from the concept of” Aaj ki Taaza Khabar” shown in films where a boy runs around selling the headline.

b. SBI- SBI did a teaser campaign for 20 days using our audio medium for home loan takeover  across Maharashtra and they promoted it across 20 District level ST Bus stands

c. Water Supply Department-‘Jal swarajya’ a campaign to promote clean drinking and potable water by boiling and filtering was a great success. As a result, 98% of people heard the communication & schemes while 90% of them implemented in real lives.

d. HUL: HUL wanted to create awareness about Lux Sandal and cream bathing, a new variant of Lux Soap among consumers in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities. This variant of Lux was meant to target the ladies of Maharashtra where Sandal, or chandan as it is popularly known, is considered to be very good for the body and makes the skin softer. As a result any soap made of chandan sells easily in Maharashtra. HUL wanted for there to be an increase in recall about Lux Sandal and Cream soap in the target market as opposed to competitors in the same category as well as an increase in the market share of Lux Sandal and Cream soap in tier 2 and tier 3 cities by highlighting the benefits of using this soap.

The audio advertisement jingle was created and ran for duration of 30 days from the 15th of December to the 15th of January. HUL wanted to have all the ST Bus stands that were under Vritti i-Media and therefore the same jingle was run across all of the 85 bus stands under Vritti i-Media without any changes in the advertisement. This included urban, semi urban and rural locations like Pune- Narayangaon, Solapur- Barshi, Kolhapur, Marathwada – Beed and Vidarbha – Yeotmal.

6. How these campaigns have benefitted the respective clients?

Lokmat Campaign: The campaign helped Lokmat Media in creating excitement in the audience and increasing the readership base for the newspaper. The campaign also gave increased counter sales at the campaign locations alongwith a good brand penetration.

SBI Campaign: While the 20 day campaign generated Rs 550 crore worth of enquiries, the communication also gave examples of a sarpanch (headman) of a village talking about availing loans and repaying on time. That way SBI was able to touch upon NPAs (non-performing assets) arising out of non-payments

Water Supply Department: According to a survey conducted to test the effectiveness of the campaign, 100% respondents felt that the ‘Sujal Maharashtra-Nirmal

Maharashtra Mission’ advertisements played on the ST Stands spread useful massages

among the passengers/commuters on the Stands. According to 98% respondents,

messages (given through Audio Advertisement Systems on ST Stands) spread awareness

and were implemented by audience. 90% people implemented it in real lives. This validated the impact of the campaign.

LUX campaign: Once the ads were aired, it could be seen that there was a positive response from the target market. We conducted a survey with 100 women at bus stops to test the response of the audio ads. The findings showed that there was a deeper emotional connect to Lux Sandal and Cream than compared to other soap brands and women preferred using it rather than other soaps. The survey also pointed out that the amount of people using Lux Sandal and Cream was at a very high level which was 71%. The soaps fragrance and color were found to be the most liked attributes. 19% were of the opinion that the soap had a good effect on skin and made it smooth and soft. Even amongst non users of the soap there were favourable comments as a great deal of them confirmed that they would like to try Lux Sandal and Cream soap.

7. This medium surely provides superb reach but does that ensure quality?

Yes, it provides good clarity in sound. As the sound levels are monitored through our micro processor based hardware, sound quality is taken care round the clock. In our recent survey conducted in association with A C Nielson, showed that the announcements were clear and audible.

8. Do you see more and more companies adopting digital OOH for their brands?

Yes, we see this as the beginning era of digital OOH. We are seeing more and more companies from different sectors adopting this medium to reach the rural markets in Maharashtra. Lately, we have undergone successful associations with companies in FMCG sector like Parle products, Entertainment channels like Star Plus, Star Pravaah,9Xm Jhakaas Marathi Channel.

9. Out of the two kinds you deal in which one has brought you greater returns?

Audio medium is an established medium as it has been in the market since 2007 whereas audio visual medium at the highway food malls was set up in 2011 and is a very new medium to compare.

10. How do you see your competition?

We love competition and but we don’t see any direct competition. In terms of the technology used to conceptualize and execute on the audio advertising medium, the competition is way behind. For instance, our service helps brands reach to remote locations like Nandurbar and Gadchiroli where the audio systems work without any manual intervention over a low band internet connection. Moreover, our experience of over a decade in the rural and small town markets of Maharashtra helps us emerge as rural market experts thus helping most of our clients in conceptualising and executing the campaign.

11. What is in the pipeline?

a. We are working closely with Outdoor Media and Creative agencies to provide effective communication tools to advertisers targeting rural markets of Maharashtra.

b. We intend to expand our Audio Visual network across  different highways in Maharashtra

c. In terms of future campaigns, we are likely to get associated with FMCG brands like HUL, Emami from FMCG. In Banking are likely to get campaigns from BOI and ICICI bank. In Telecom we are likely to get work from Vodafone.

12. What are your plans to expand in the other parts of the country?

We are planning expand our audio network to Gujrat, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in the near future.

Covered by Mediavataar

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