Factors Driving the Growth of OOH Media

Out-of-Home (OOH) has revolutionized the way outdoor communication is being looked upon by marketers and, today, it has transcended the traditional outdoors, extending to communicate with the customer at various touch points.OOH as a medium has the greatest flexibility in terms of being able to transform ideas and imaginations into reality. Out-of-home advertising is used extensively in India – in both urban and rural areas, and includes a wide variety, right from road-side wall paintings and small handbills to large illuminated hoardings and electronic displays.

 

 

Introduction

Out-of-Home (OOH) has revolutionized the way outdoor communication is being looked upon by marketers and, today, it has transcended the traditional outdoors, extending to communicate with the customer at various urban touch points. However, out-of-home advertising is in fact one of the oldest form of advertising. The use of advertising signs dates back to the days of ancient Rome and Greece, when signs were used to make the locations of mercantile institutions. The modern out-of-home media include posters; classical bill-boards; hoardings; non-standardized signs such as road signs, highway advertising; transit advertising placed on public and private transit vehicles; and also advertising at rail, bus and air terminals.

Out-of-home advertising accounts for around 5-10% of India’s total advertisement business and the rate of growth are 15% per year. Industry experts estimate the possible market size of OOH advertising is Rs.3, 500 crore. Previously, OOH advertising was considered as a supporting media to play the role of additional support service when the message was already communicated by the TV Commercials (TVCs) and print media; but now, the landscape for OOH is changing dramatically. Media planners and brand marketers no longer consider OOH to be the support media: instead it has become an essential instrument in the complete ad strategy of any successful branding exercise.OOH advertising along with internet advertising are used by the marketers in order to elicit consumer brand engagement.

Factors Driving the Growth of OOH Media:

Among the key trends driving the rapid expansion of alternative out-of home (OOH) advertising are as follows:

1. The trust among advertisers that these media provide high engagement, targeting options, proximity to point-of-sale, measurable impact, and cost effectiveness.

2. It enhances brand identity and widening the scope of effective engagement of consumer at various urban touch points.

3. Increasing effective and efficient allocation of the advertising budgets.

4. Through OOH advertising information can be communicated effectively.

5. 24 hours presence.

6. Economic efficiency in terms of low production cost and low cost per thousand exposures.

7. Over the past few years, media penetration has increased phenomenally. Increasing penetration of media has led to increasing demand for a clutter free advertising. OOH media provides ample opportunity to advertisers for clutter free advertising.

8. OOH media symbolizes creative freedom. There is no limit like 30 second time slots (as in TVCs) or column centimeters (as in print media). Here the only limitation is one’s imagination. One can put ideas into execution without being bogged down by the limitation of size and time.

9. Another reason for the popularity of OOH media is the innovations that have happened in OOH advertising over the past decade. Today, OOH media is not just about plain hoardings trying to catch the attention of a disinterested crowd, but being innovative in terms of commercials used and display made.e.g. Vehicle wrapping is gaining popularity in recent OOH advertising field. According to industry experts, out of the total Rs.3,500 crore market size of out-of –home (OOH) advertising ,vehicle wraps, which is commonly known as fleet graphics amount to a Rs.50-Rs.100 crore.This substantiates that, there has been a phenomenal shift in the ways things are done today, than in the past. This makes it an ideal medium for advertisers to reach out to the target audience.

10. Exposure to and recall of these media is growing as individuals spend more time commuting to work, walking in urban areas, waiting in transit hubs, and shopping at retail outlets.

11. Majority of consumers view alternative out-of-home (OOH) media as favorable and educational.

References: IJMT