Outdoor Advertising

O
utdoor advertising is also a very
popular form of advertising, which
makes use of several tools and
techniques to attract the customers
outdoors. The most common examples of
outdoor advertising are billboards, kiosks,
and also several events and tradeshows
organized by the company. Billboard
advertising is very popular, however, it
has to be really terse and catchy in order
to grab the attention of the passers by.

The kiosks not only provide an easy outlet

for the company products but also make
for an effective advertising tool to
promote it. Organizing several events or
sponsoring those makes for an excellent
advertising opportunity. The company can
organize trade fairs, or even exhibitions for advertising their products. If not this, the
company can organize several events that are closely associated with their field. For
instance a company that manufactures sports utilities can sponsor a sports tournament
to advertise its products.

Standard Client-Agency Interaction Process

OOH Agency Buying of

Client Media Media
space
Brief Plan

Execution

Ad agency/ Media
Fig. 1 Agency
Evaluation
of plan
Constituents of the Industry Vertical
The outdoor industry can be classified into the following basic verticals.

Client

The client over here refers to the company seeking outdoor advertising. Cellular
companies generally spend a lot on this medium in India. Radio industry also uses
outdoor media a lot, as it complements the kind of local reach the radio industry seeks.

Most radios accept outdoor advertising which forms a major chunk of their advertising
budget. They attribute this to the fact that just like the radio, outdoor media too is
localized. Hence local radio stations can drive in a personal touch-point with the
consumers especially during the launch phase. It has been widely accepted that outdoor
advertising greatly influences radio listenership. Another viewpoint is that many people
listen to the radio while on-the-go. Hence to see billboard advertising some FM station
while traveling can make the consumer tune into that station.

Media Owners

• Government owned - Government owned properties like railways, utilities,

municipal corporations, bus shelters.

• Privately owned - Private builders, housing corporations, hoardings, and other

such privately owned property.

These properties are usually leased out to the agencies for a license fee, which provide
an additional source of revenue for property owners. Normally these tenders cover large
amounts of properties. This makes it easier for the larger oganised players, because
often the small agencies cannot afford such large scale buying. As a result, over a period
of time, prime outdoor locations are bought over and controlled by large, long term
players. A case in point would be how the BEST Bus Queue shelters in Mumbai, and the
Delhi Metro Railway Corporation Out-of-Home (OOH) properties are now owned by large
private OOH players.

While this trend of larger players controlling all the prominent locations serves to
decrease fragmentation in the industry and increase share of organised players, a
flipside is that because of resultant high entry barriers, small but perhaps competent
players often find it very hard to break into the market space.

Regulatory Bodies

The Outdoor Industry is perceived to be very disorganised and defragmented. There are
no laws and acts to protect the constituents of this industry. Regulation is still a distant
dream.

However, with the steady growth of the industry size, and the entry of many international
players, there have been some efforts in the last few years.
 1. Outdoor Advertising Convention:
Ever since 2005, every year in
October more than 400 delegates
from all spheres of the Outdoor
Media space gather in Bombay to
discuss and address relevant
issues of the business. There are
eminent speakers from the
government as well as the
agencies.

2. Indian Outdoor Advertising

Association (IOAA): On Sep 29 th,
2007, leading Out-of-Home
companies came together to form
IOAA. The founding members were
Selvel Advertising,Jagran Engage,
Times Innovative Media Ltd, Clear Channel, Prakash Arts and Laqshya Media.

The Agency

Company/ Advertising Media Agency OOH Agency

Client Agency

Fig 2

1. Client-OOH Agency: This is the case when the client i.e. the company only
consults the Out-Of-Home agency. The company can design the media plan
internally, and approach the OOH agency just to buy space, or it can approach the
agency to design the Out-Of-Home aspect of the company’s media plan.

2. Client-Media Agency-OOH Agency: The Company has its advertising plan in place.
It only approaches the Media Buying and Selling agency to plan its media
placements. The Media agency in turn buys space from the OOH agency, as per
the media plan.

3. Client-Ad Agency-Media Agency-OOH Agency: This process involves maximum

number of parties. The advertising agency details out the strategy for the client. In
 cases where the advertising
agency does not have an in-house
media buying/selling agency, it
approaches an external media
agency which in turn buys space
from an OOH agency.

4. Client-Ad Agency-OOH Agency: In

this situation, the ad agency
decides the advertising strategy in
line with the client’s marketing
strategy. It plans aspects like
media and communications
placements as well, often through
an in-house media agency, and then approaches an OOH agency to simply buy
space.

There are many other possible permutations and combinations. It is possible that the
client simply needs to approach one advertising agency, which has an in-house media
agency as well as an OOH agency. Many times, it might simply own a lot of OOH
property, so a specialized OOH agency is not required. Many times the media agency has
an in-house OOH agency.

What is important to note, is the specialized functions of each of these agencies. It does
not matter whether one agency does all the tasks, or every task is performed by
specialized agencies. What matters simply is a comprehensive understanding of each of
the individual functions and the purpose they serve.

Areas of operation
There are many formats that are available within in the Outdoor media space today.
Primarily they are:

1. Billboards: With strategic positioning, billboards can provide high-impact, eye-

popping exposure. Today technology has increased the many kinds of bilboards
available. There are neon/glow billboards, ones that stay lit at night-time and
billboards that have a screen where many advertisements (stills/ commercials)
can be shown one after the other.

2. Street Furniture: This format is very innovative. Kiosks can be built as per the
client’s needs. They are usually placed at malls and other such places, and serve
as ideal for brand recall just at point-of-purchase.

3. Alternative Media: While at the rural level, this kind of outdoor media serves as
ideal, at urban level they help the client’s brand stand out and attract attention.
Village fairs and ‘melas’ and such activities directly impact the rural consumer. In
urban cities, ambient media, below-the-line activities, etc, are forms of alternative
outdoor media.
 4. Consumers-in-transit:This form
of media is avaliable on trains,
buses, cabs, airplanes and
offers a media option to the
client that simply cannot be
ignored by the consumer.

The various kinds of outdoor media options available to companies are:

Bus shelters, cabs, translites at airports, over-bridges, buses, road dividers,

electronic displays, travel tickets, traffic islands, banners, blimps/balloons, railways
stations/ platforms, suburban trains, village fairs, retail shop displays, close-circuit
TV, bus terminals, mobile hoardings, shopping malls, multiplexes, public utilities/
services, van campaigns, kiosks, etc.

Media Planning: Outdoor advertising is very crucial to brands that want to break away
from the clutter and reach out to audience in an unconventional manner. Product
launches that seek to grab attention should ideally go with outdoor advertising.

Media Selling: Sometimes the entire planning process is done by the company, or by
another agency. The Outdoor advertising agency is approached just to recommend
outdoor media placement.

Customers: As mentioned earlier, customers of outdoor advertising are those

companies that seek to reach out to their target audience in this unconventional matter.
Companies thus approach agencies in their capacity as clients and avail of their services

Advertisers: Some standard rates for Outdoor Media are as follows. These are taken as
benchmark and rates for other cities and media is decided according to this.

These are approximations, and they vary according to agency, client and many other
criteria. In situations where there is buying and selling of bulk volumes of media, and the
client and agency share a long-standing relationship, obviously the rates differ
drastically.

Market Potential
The key factors driving growth in Out-of-Home Media are:
 1. Increasing ad-spends: People now possess a lot more buying power. They
consume more and marketers now have to reach out to audiences through every
possible means. This invariably means increase in use of non-traditional media.
Outdoor media provides that avenue for targeting customers 360 degrees. This
has led to an increasing number of brands using outdoor media.

2. Clutter in traditional media: Increasing media penetration over the last few years
demands clutter free advertising and Outdoor media provides ample opportunity
to break away from the clutter.

3. Increasing working population: The time spent outside homes has drastically
increased today, and in metros especially, people are used to travelling at least
for a couple of hours every day. This works very much in the favour of Outdoor
media.

4. Aptness in Rural Marketing: In rural markets, where literacy rate is not very high,
and people cannot read print medium does not work at all. Also rural areas are
struck by power shortages frequently, so television does not prove to be too
effective either. Thus clients resort to using Outdoor media in these places which
gives them an excellent ROI (Return on Investment).

5. Local Advertising: Outdoor media is a lot cheaper as compared to traditional

media. Therefore, for local companies who are not looking at advertising on a
national level, this proves to be the perfect choice.

25000

20000

15000

10000

5000

0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Exhibit 1: Projected Growth of Outdoor Advertising Industry (in INR million)

Source: ZenithOptimedia

Resource Requirements and Skill Set Requirements

To start with there are certain fundamentals and prerequisites that every agency should
be able to leverage on when it pitches to the client for the account. These include
  Systematic and organized method of working
 Clear understanding of the client’s objectives and goals
 Either ownership of, or access to strategically placed property
 Access to service, contacts and expertise not available elsewhere
 Service orientation towards each client’s customized needs
 Provide an overall coordination of resources
 Proof of focus, logic, continuity and honesty in past dealings
 Competitive fee structures
 Exceeding of expectations by offering additional creative, or other
recommendations

Key Industry Trends and Future Perspective

Outdoor advertising has always provided more scope in terms of application of new
technology, innovation and other factors. And it is continuously evolving. Today it is
laser shows; tomorrow it will be something else.

Business Profile of Outdoor Advertising

Prepared by Mudra Institute of Communication Ahmedabad (MICA)

For Department of Science & Technology (DST), Technology Bhawan, New

Mehrauli Road, New Delhi – 16

Note: Various references have been used in the preparation of this profile. For further details please contact the Institute.

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