Broadcast regulator TRAI’s move to cap advertising to 12 minutes per hour on television channels seems to be opening opportunities for media formats such as digital, print and out-of-home (OOH) advertising.
According to industry experts, among the new age media, the OOH segment will find a good traction considering the likely shift in advertisers’ preference.
“Yes, other media is likely to gain — digital, print and OOH in that order are most likely to benefit,” Madison World Executive Director, Lara Balsara, told PTI.
She, however, said despite being an outstanding and effective medium, OHH is being hindered by lack of measurement data and “also the fact that advertisers cannot buy with confidence (the brands), leads to its under utilisation”.
Expressing confidence on the potential of OOH, UTI Mutual Funds Head of Marketing, Gaurav Suri, said advertisers would look towards mediums and means to reach out to consumers and connect more efficiently given the inflation and the premium rates in traditional advertising platforms.
“OOH in that sense allows you to localise, customise and with measurability coming in, it would be an attractive option,” Suri said.
The OOH sector has different formats of advertisements — billboards, hoardings, bus shelters, gantry, bridge panel, wall rap and public utilities — for reaching out to consumers while they are on the move.
However, not all are enthused by OOH.
Vodafone Senior Vice-President Brand & Insights, Anuradha Aggarwal, said: “TV still will remain the cheapest medium to reach out to our consumers...There is often data related problems in OOH sector. Many times data are not accurate.”
However, recently some new firms such as Proof of Performance Data Service have claimed collecting data scientifically and helping brands and agencies to plan their ad campaigns in the OOH sector.
“The only reason the sector was not growing was lack of accountability and lack of measurement data. Now we have brought substantial data of viewership and now advertisers would come,” Proof of Performance Data Service Managing Director, Harjaap Singh Mann, said, adding his firm has a data base of 50,000 media assets.
“We expect that big companies specially from FMCG and auto would come for it as they may move from TV to outdoor after getting good returns on the investment in OOH sector,” he added.