Ahmadabad, Indore, Chandigarh, Pune are emerging markets in OOH segment: Haresh Nayak

If reports are to be believed, the industry is currently going through major slowdown and brands are cutting costs to stay afloat in the segment but not during festivities. Yes, comes the festive season and happy time for the brands and the media industry arrives too. We spoke to Haresh Nayak, Group MD - Posterscope- South Asia, India to understand what are the different kinds of avenues brands tap into while resorting to OOH during festivities; the emerging markets and what kind of brands are investing heavily during this time of the year and more.

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What are the different kinds of avenues brands can tap into while resorting to OOH?

There are a lot of avenues, from different markets to different types of formats. In the coming 2-3 months there will be a lot of activities in the OOH space but a client can also look at DOOH where a lot of engagement activity can be done along with the traditional media and digital media. At places like malls, beauty parlour there are a lot of captive audiences present. So, within these spaces, there are many options today. We have been doing initiatives in the malls, colleges. We are looking at beauty parlor as big segment because a lot of engagement is there during festive season.

Also, we're also trying to do something as potentially a lot of talking is going to happen in a mall, so not only looking at digital and traditional media options within the mall but also doing geo fencing and connecting them with digital. For example, we did a combination of social media along with the traditional OOH or DOOH in the mall and if you are surfing something on the net, he/she will get to see similar notification on their handsets.

 What are the brands investing more on ooh during festival season?

Automobile brands like Maruti Suzuki, Honda, mobile handset as a category is active right now brands like Oppiio, One plus, Redmi etc. All the FMCG brands, ecommerce brands opts to invest heavily during this time of the year with their discounts/offers. Banks namely standard chartered, hdfc are active too with their offers of debit/credit cards.

What kind of ooh is working? Is it the celebrity hoarding or is it the traditional billboards, what is it that's working in terms of creatives?

It is a combination of everything. In a world which is so cluttered and complex every customer is different. Ultimately we need to have a communication which is reaching one to one and is not going to many. So, in this scenario you cannot say that one activity will work or two activities will. It needs to be a holistic 360 degree view and a combination of everything.

What are the emerging markets in the OOH space?

Markets like Ahmadabad, Indore, Chandigarh, Pune are the new emerging markets. Reason being the we have good quality out of home media inventories in place, different infrastructure in place. If you look at beyond these four metro cities, I think these small cities are learning quickly and not repeating the mistakes done by the metros because the learning curve is much faster.

How brands today are investing their advertising budgets in emerging markets?

It depends a lot on their marketing, everything starts with it. There are a lot of factors including their goals, objectives, whether their product will penetrate in the market way better. Thumb rule is largely the brands are available in metros because the population is larger, the potential is more in terms of location. Brands like Mahindra, FMCG brands are also working in the rural markets, because demand in the rural as well as metro is equal.

Do different brands look for different positioning to target a specific audience base? 

That’s our goal as an agency, if you look at every agency has its own unique way of planning. We don't consider outdoor advertising companies; we push within ourselves as location based marketing company. The moment you chose a position, the data analytics, technology and Insight which you are able to provide to your client to take the right decision is very difficult. And for us, the kind of investments we have done in various API’s , data points, we are able to take those decisions.

We are also looking at influencers who will work for us data these are in media activity. So, far more news. we are also looking at the key markets and suggesting celebrities or influencers who are right for brands to that hyper local penetration and creating content. Various initiatives have been taken by brands to become more and more accountable and also more and more hyper local.

For example, Flipkart as the giant brand invests their advertising budgets in emerging markets and Coolberg as an upcoming brand that does the same.

Is OOH industry, a victim of economic slowdown?

Yes, we have witnessed it, because of the festive season it is looking little better. But before the arrival of the festivities, things were not how it was last year.