“D”OOH: Revival of outdoor

Digitalisation has meant that even the traditional media is undergoing a big change. Technology has made each and every aspect of business to not just evolve incrementally but exponentially.

Hence it comes as no surprise that the media industry is going through a transformation never seen before courtesy newer technologies. Of late digital media has made inroads to probably what is one of the oldest form of media – OOH. The buzzword in the industry is DOOH.

For quite some time OOH lagged other media in terms of brand messaging. Now, digital technologies are revolutionising this medium. To begin with, the long-standing issue of messaging being all static on OOH is a thing of the past. With digitisation it is possible to run messages dynamically. Moreover, with digital technologies it is possible for the advertiser to use this media not only for brand building but also for sales-driven engagements. RoI from spends on this dynamic media would hence be necessarily much higher than those on conventional media.

For long OOH had been hamstrung by issues related to transparency, control and cost.
These issues are now being addressed with the use of digital technologies. What’s more, today digital screens are built to withstand the harshest climatic conditions, so they can be put up in different outdoor environments, which is a big boost for DOOH advertising. Although the investment costs for creating a DOOH network are relatively high, as the volume of demand for digital OOH hardware and software increases, the unit costs will also go down commensurately.

The icing on the cake is that technology has made the medium go from STATICDYNAMIC. Now that really opens up a whole world of possibilities ranging from media utilisation to buying to consumption. This only means one thing – a whole range of advertisers who did not venture into utilising this media are now not only exploring it but more importantly experimenting with this medium. There are enough and more examples across industries and geographies pertaining to this.

It will not be out of place to say OOH has got the “D” edge now. The future has never looked more promising than now.
Jiveshdeep Singh Sandhu is Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer with Absolute Training Solutions. Prior to this, he has held senior positions at Nissan Motor India, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, and JCB India.