'Consistent conversation is the differentiator'

Impact of economy on marketing and advertising budgets

We have always spent commensurate with the business requirement. The last two years have been largely depressed because of market conditions and volatility. However given the resurgence in the market we feel that in the near short term we will see an uptake. Marketing and advertising budgets do factor in larger macro economic variables however they also look at current business needs. We are entering into our 50Th year of existence. The category and the organization are synonymous with Mutual funds. As a thought leader in the category, you will definitely see us building a communication plan in the coming year.

Role of OOH in the overall marketing plans

 While looking at any media Mix we look at the following things:

1) Integration - of the medium and the idea: This is essential as many a times a idea for a medium gets just adapted for another medium in the guise of a integrated marketing campaign. This we found is not always effective.

2) Implementation: Here we look at how we can create high impact with low budgets and therefore what are the options available.

3) Innovation: Given the high fragmentation of media, how do you create disruption and what are the possibilities of innovation.

The pervasiveness of out of  home is clearly one signal that it is becoming an integral part of a customer's life. It is left to the marketers how they want to utilize it in a non intrusive way and make it amiable and likeable. OOH media induces these conversations among peers and facilitates assimilation of information and forming of purchase-intents.

We have an example of integration of medium with the idea when we launched a product called Lifestyle fund ( India's spending  power is your growing power). We used the multiplex, shopping Malls as key delivery places of our messages and integrated the OOH format with the grocery carts, placed the messaging the in malls, and created a customer interface. This helped create an association for the fund, fetched responses and clearly established the reason for investing in such a product and was received well.

A similar process was adopted when we did our infrastructure fund. The realization that India as a country was into creation of infrastructure we looked at building wraps around large contruction sites to drive home the point.

Having said this it will be difficult to put too many numbers as ( measurement and that too timely and effective one) is a gap in the country right now. Some small start has been made. This will go a long way in helping marketers put more money into such ideas which seems efficient as well as effective.

People are spending more time out-of-home almost equally by compulsion and also by choice. We see even other media are taking huge help from the OOH media to drive their readership, listenership and viewership. Media is perhaps one of the largest advertising category on OOH! Besides, OOH media offers a variety of formats, is more flexible hence allows us to reach out to a wider audience.

We have used OOH to connect with the TG in their environment to give them reassurance, convey to them our achievements, get them to feel good about our investments through the OOH format. Out of home therefore from a consumer lens is all pervasive and it is upto the marketer to use it effectively.

Examples are the 1 crore announcement on Bandra, the Awards announcement and other innovations.

Formats

As an organization we have experimented with multiple formats, be it metro, bus branding, building wraps or in-mall advertising, besides the usual bus shelters, neons, hoardings, etc.  We have even used lift branding in our own office when we were trying to spread go green messages. The traditional formats are used as multipliers, reminder medium as well as strategic intervention eg in retail space - announcing new stores, local campaigns.

As you can see from the above options we have been using OOH all through.

OOH Budget

Communication and salience are but one element of the marketing mix in the financial services. Essentially how continuously, credibly and consistently you have conversations with the customer to build experiences is what differentiates the brand.

Like I mentioned earlier, using the framework of 3 I's the allocation varied from campaign to campaign and it can go upto 100% as the case maybe in some interior markets ( districts ) which we reach out to.

Challenges

It becomes a bit restrictive when you have to talk products and detail out products except when the concept or idea of a product lends itself to the offerings. Specific to us, the clutter in the big cities is way too high and the quality of street furniture has not evolved to the level desired.

Other challenges are usually related to the infrastructure, regulations which involve multiple bodies and places which are difficult to reach. And these challenges are not state specific or area specific.

Approach to campaign creatives

Our OOH media creatives are similar to the ones we use for print but we simplify them so that we can establish a connect and achieve a media multiplier. OOH is a'4 second' medium and the audience is not consuming this media in a'committed manner'. They consume this media when they are out-of-home, hence we should make the creative's simple, attractive and direct .

Simplification of the message and being direct is something which we focus on while designing for the format.

Defining innovation

I would define innovation as an improvised OOH advertising method that would set you apart from the rest. I feel innovation should be used sparingly as it provides a good disruption and helps in garnering some immediate publicity. We have used OOH innovations to communicate some of our milestone achievements and we indeed got good mileage, which magnified the campaign footprint. For example, we did OOH innovations to announce our reaching 1 crore investors.

Measurement (of impact)

As mentioned previously, it is a concern that we share too. It is difficult to evaluate the success of a campaign and we hope the Indian OOH media industry finds an effective resolution. There are initial beginnings being made by a firm in video based monitoring and mapping of a city which is also going to provide analytic out of Noida. There are a couple of more firms working in that direction.  I'm pretty sure that more brands would advertise on OOH media if there was a standard measurement tool in place.

Role of and expectations from OOH specialist agencies

I think the OOH media operates in out-of-home arena which by definition is very wide and continuously changing. The arena is so dynamic that media values also undergo significant changes. Audience is also moving at a great speed between media and destinations. We hope specialist agencies are keyed into dissecting this world and give us filtered recommendations to achieve our marketing objectives within given budgets.

Message to media owners

They should regulate the supply hence maintain the stability in efficiencies of a given media unit. And also if aesthetics of the media units can be improved all over India as we see happening in Mumbai.
 
Factors that will OOH spending

Like I mentioned, if the OOH industry succeeds in creating a measurement tool to evaluate campaign effectiveness, then it would be a huge plus point for them. The creative agencies must incubate thinking on the mediums. This will again see some gains. Finally the infrastructure / quality of street furniture and its maintenance must improve, then it will automatically create a desirable pull for the medium. This will help the industry grow by encouraging brands to increase their spends on OOH within their media-mix.