OOH - Out Of Home Media

What is OOH?
One of the most difficult task for today's marketers is to reach the target audience without a wastage. Newspaper and Television forms the spine for any media plan but to reach that last leap, more and more media planners have started using OOH as an effective tool in their media plans.

OOH - Simply put, Out of Home media is a form of advertising/promotion that you come across when one is out of their homes. Billboards on the highways to promotion signage outside shops to digital screens in supermarkets & malls to mobile vans, etc all of these forms the part of hugely potential industry.

OOH slices 1.5% of the total advertisement spends of Rs. 207,095 mn industry in India says a research conducted by Zenith Optimedia. And this is expected to grow rapidly in coming years.

Unorganised Play
OOH industry in India is still in a very nascent stage. The industry today is fragmented and dominated by unorganised players. And as a result, it leads to a few problems like measurability and accountibility, costs, and availibility of the sites.

There are local players operating at different sectors and dominating the market, but since they operate locally, the national learning goes for a toss. Like one will find Bright Advertising in Mumbai, HET in Ahmedabad, so on and so forth.

Bigger players have started chipping in the industry, but they are busy ramping up the number of sites across different locations.

Biggies
Quite a few biggies have started pitching for OOH and currently in a phase to acquire sites.
Times OOH - The Times group has started its division Times OOH. Times OOH has already acquired sites at Mumbai and Delhi airports and they are extending their network to other cities like Kolkata, Pune, etc.

OOH Media - OOH Media claims to be the largest out of home television company. They are mainly into employing LCD screens at different locations like offices, malls, cafes, clubs, etc

Ogilvy Activations - A division from O&M specialises in OOH home activities for its client to achieve the last mile for their existing clients. They have started pitching individually for OOH campaigns as well.

There are many besides these players, a recent news broke in that Mr. Rupert Murdoch is all set to share OOH slice with its News Outdoor Group India. It has already bought bus shelters in Bangalore. Other players includes Jagran Solutions from Dainik Jagran Group, Laqshya Media, Madison's Madison Outdoor Media Services etc.

Reasons for Growth
The traditional media like newspaper and television are the back bone of any media plan but skyrocketing prices of these media and a lot of wastage pinches marketers hard. Hence marketers and media planners of the world started looking for alternative options. Growth in internet OOH and radio advertisements is one of the result of these shortcomings of TV and Print.

The another advantage which has been very well leveraged by marketers is localisation of the advertisement campaign. OOH allows marketers to reach and communicate with target audience with local taste in local language.

As compared to other media, OOH provides not just cheaper but effective solutions for marketers. With the technological advancement, not just static billboards but very effective audio-visuals helps the marketers to reach their target audience in newer and attractive fashion.

Further, a study conducted by Neilsen Media Research shows that there is a high recall of slogans on OOH media.

And one of the most important reason is the involvement it generates among the audience makes it really effective medium.

Consolidation

The process has been initiated in Mumbai to consolidate the OOH industry and introduce benchmarks and measurability factor. The biggies are coming together to work upon parameters like, costs, sites, measurability and benchmarking similar to other media.

But in short, OOH is here to stay and there is a long way to go ahead. It is very effective and efficient mode of communication, but it will always be used as a support medium alongwith TV and Print.