OUTDOOR CALLING

OOH in India & China: The paradox of contrasts that’s similar

By Ashish Bhasin

As you drive into the Pudong area of Shanghai, having just seen the Maglev zip pass you at 400 kmph and having come off a layered highway that is on top of a highway, which is on top of yet another highway, you realise that Manmohan Singh’s dream of turning Mumbai into Shanghai is going to take a long, long time to get fulfilled. Just when you think the comparison is fruitless, you move out of the 100-plus storey collection of skyscrapers to many parts that instantly remind you of Mumbai. And you say, wow, Mumbai can perhaps become Shanghai soon. It truly is a paradox of contrasts that are similar.

The story in the OOH arena is the same. There are contrasts where China seems miles ahead of us and then there are areas where you feel we can actually teach them a thing or two. Let’s explore a few such areas.

The single biggest difference is in the area of DOOH or Digital OOH. It is estimated that there are about 2.5 million digital screens in the world today. Out of that, more than 1 million, that is, over 40 per cent are in China alone. So much so that some Chinese DOOH companies are listed on the Nasdaq and are gigantic in scale. In India, we have less than 9,000. What a contrast! Digital OOH is the future and at least on this count, game, set and match to China.

The glitzy animation, neons and LEDs that can put Piccadilly Circus and Times Square to shame can be seen in the Bund area and, I am afraid, the story in general is pretty much the same even on this count. A few neons on Marine Drive in Mumbai are just not in the same league.

Then we come to scale. In my role as the APAC Head of Posterscope, perhaps the largest OOH conglomerate in APAC, I am privileged to be exposed to the turnover figures of various companies in this domain – both on the OOH media owner’s side and on the OOH agencies’ side. Take my word for it, at an average, on a like-to-like comparison, their scale is 500-1,000 per cent bigger than the Indian equivalents. Like everything else in China, the turnover and profit figures of the OOH companies are huge, giving them the power to invest further in the business, which sometimes India lacks. This has helped them improve their OOH infrastructure, quality and reach tremendously.

Let’s look at the other side
Clearly an area where we do have an edge over China is perhaps in the area of tools and planning processes. Perhaps our natural inclination towards IT and our intellectual abilities come to our rescue here. While both markets suffer from lack of quality research, India has relatively better developed planning processes, in general. At least some of the Indian OOH agencies, and I can only speak for Posterscope, as it is from my group, have tools and systems that are now of world standard and clearly ahead of those found in an average Chinese OOH agency. I am sure Indian OOH agencies will capitalise on the human capital in the months and years to come.

Another area of OOH where, of late, India has made better progress is the creativity and innovation part of OOH, linked again to human capital in a way. With the launch of specialist OOH creative and innovation outfits like Hyperspace, I think some Indian OOH agencies are better off in this area as compared to China.

One can clearly see that like in other areas of the industry, in the OOH industry as well, China has the scale, manufacturing and infrastructure advantage, while India has the human capital, knowledge and IT advantage.

So all in all, both markets are huge and have similarities. But they also have distinct differences and areas of strength, making them a study of contrasts that are similar, a paradox in itself.

To conclude and stick my neck out, as things stand today, there is no doubt that India has a long way to go in catching up with China in the area of OOH. However, if we do it right, we can definitely get there, someday, perhaps in 3-5 years’ time.

(Ashish Bhasin is Chairman India, and CEO, South East Asia, Aegis Media.)