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Big ideas derive from biggest problems

By Bhawana Anand - July 27, 2020

Raj Kamble, Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Famous Innovations shares the role of creativity in OOH advertising industry in this global Covid19 situation

Raj Kamble, Founder & CCO<br>Famous InnovationsA May 2008 Milward Brown paper titled “Marketing During Recession: Survival Tactics” recommended that the best way to leverage media spend during a recession is to put it behind high-quality creative and effectively making creative work harder. Across a variety of categories, brands and channels, creative was found to have five times as much impact on profit as did budget allocation.

Hence, to understand the role of creativity in OOH advertising industry in this global Covid19 situation, Bhawana Anand caught up with an OOH enthusiast, Raj Kamble, Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Famous Innovations.  Below are his edited excerpts.

1. What role can a powerful creative play to attract consumers, who are distracted due to the pandemic and are more concerned about maintaining social distance and taking other precautionary measures?

When you test the creatives, they come up with the best. Four months ago, even the great visionaries did not imagine that we will be here today and nobody was ready for it. This pandemic is a big challenge to every creative person out there.  If we all take this personally, we can create something mind-blowing. Lots of big ideas in the world were discovered in tough times. Isaac Newton has discovered gravity while in quarantine during London plague. I think this pandemic will definitely make the industry rethink and question every norm that we took for granted.

2. Various researches are stating that brands need to show their initiatives undertaken to help communities to survive in this difficult time. Can you share how it can be done on OOH medium which has limitations like space, dwell time and many more?

Personally, I have always believed in the outdoor medium.  I call it ‘father’ of advertising mediums. It is because; this medium is bold, confident, standing in the middle of the road staring at you. Unfortunately, people are not coming out of their homes so they are not seeing outdoors.

But recently, one of our Miami Ad School student used OOH in the most beautiful manner. They came up with an idea for media-services provider and production company Netflix, in which they revealed the suspense of all Netflix's popular shows on outdoor medium across the city. It was the way of conveying message to consumers that they need to stay home otherwise they will know the climax of their favorite shows without enjoying watching them. The campaign was called "The Spoiler Billboards" and I think it was a brilliant idea. Another good example is how Burger King used their outdoors which no one was seeing and converted them to Zoom backgrounds, asking people to use them for their office calls and get a free Whopper. Like any other medium, outdoor is a platform and it's about how creatively you use it even when there are restrictions.

3. DOOH is believed to arise as a big format in the OOH industry post Covid19 era, what kind of effective yet economical ways of communication you can suggest that can help a brand stand out in a cluttered environment?

 DOOH has the advantage of being interactive and giving you information. Earlier outdoors used to say what to buy, but now DOOH can tell you much more in an interactive manner. You stand in front of an outdoor and it will tell you what looks good or bad on you and gives you discount details. It is like- your mobile meets outdoor, outdoor meets TV and finally TV meets your computer screen. DOOH is already very popular in the western countries but when it will start gaining traction in India, we will jump one step ahead. I think, in future, lots of OOH will not just be digital but interactive also.  In the world of data and algorithms, I won't be surprised if a DOOH telling me- don't buy this otherwise your wife will be upset or don't forget to buy your kid’s new shoes.

4. Did you like any campaigns under Unlock Phase 1 launched in international markets where the brand comes in sync with the need of the hour?

There haven't been that many campaigns using outdoor lately. But now with businesses resuming and people going back to work, I think it will be really appreciated if all outdoor companies just put a small gesture near corporate offices to welcome people back.

Also read: ‘Clients need Creativity & Data together’

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