‘OOH is an impact media’

What role does OOH media play in Edelweiss’ brand marketing?

I must tell you that OOH has been one of my favourite mediums for various reasons. 15%-20% of our ad spends go to OOH. We have used the medium time & again for highly tactical campaigns which were designed for a quick roll out to generate high impact. In such cases, we cover the target city in a big way. 

We also go in for long duration campaigns, mainly because the media is consumed day in and day out. In our device-agnostic lives wherein we are on screens like phones, tablet or TV and constantly distracted, while we are on the street we can’t miss OOH.

As such, the audiences for video-based and digital media are highly fragmented, whereas the OOH media commands an assured audience. However, brands sometime make a mistake of converting a hoarding into a press ad. 

It is our firm belief that the OOH media commands the attention of the target audience, and that a well-planned communication can deliver the goods in the outdoor.

Could you explain how well an OOH campaign stacks up via-a-vis the objective of your brand communications?

There are three kinds of outdoor campaigns that we execute to achieve different objectives. Firstly, we go in for long-term campaigns for which we take up media for long duration including LED sites. We have with us some media in Mumbai for a good three years. Secondly, we go in for ambient media, where I get a chance to do something innovative. Thirdly, we go in for booster campaigns, especially in the event of a product launch.

As more people spend more time out of home, do you see a greater reason to drive OOH advertising for deepening your brand’s consumer connect?

Yes, it does. In 2015 or 2016, during the Mumbai Marathon time which occurs in January and around the same we had a product launch. We took around 4000-5000 bus shelters covering the entire stretch of marathon for two weeks because in this time, the marathon training was intent and on the day of the marathon, the whole Mumbai was out on the street. The people were running, cheering and training & practicing; our communication was that they saw. In fact, without having the marathon sponsorship, we got the benefits of that.

As OOH becomes multi-faceted with dynamic transit media and activations, and the like, is there scope for more compelling brand storytelling in the outdoor?

I think a lot of it depends on the objective designed for a particular channel or a medium is going to achieve. If I have to do a storytelling then I think I will still fall back on the traditional format i.e. video which gives me the ability to narrate the story. But if I need to build a recall then Outdoor is a great medium to keep on flashing my brand and its message. Actually, for an SME campaign we actually used it to begin with the message because the message was so simplified, for which OOH medium became a perfect channel for it. Therefore, it really is what we have set as an objective and then how does the communication finally deliver it there. 

Do you also see OOH as a strong medium to connect with consumers in non-metro cities?

Most of the time, outside Mumbai we depend a lot on our various branch offices. There are about 400 branch offices and we depend on their understanding of the city, the catchment areas that where they feel that the brand can get maximum value. Our branch officers and heads also help in auditing and quality control as well. They ensure the timely start of the campaign till its execution and check various other aspects like legality of the site, proper implementation of the campaign from start to end and etc. This is also the challenge in OOH medium where there is no legal known audited medium from whom I can buy since there are so many concessionaires, there is no single rate card, there isn’t a single mechanism to audit and nor there is a single mechanism to measure the impact. 

What were the highlights of your brand’s recent OOH campaigns?

‘Be Unlimited’ campaign and the brand positioning started in October last year when we launched our SME campaign. We started out emphasising on the building awareness amongst the SME community which is a large client base for us. In fact, we used OOH campaign very effectively in this campaign as it was a classic marketing where our belief was to be seen in the very crowded places therefore we have to be unique and when we looked at the insights emanating from this community. We started this campaign exclusively with OOH medium which went on for 6 weeks across 10 cities in India. 

Will expansion of DOOH give brands like your greater reason to up the OOH spends?

Yes absolutely, we can also do storytelling with such formats. There is one huge screen in South Mumbai and I still haven’t been able to figure out why enough advertisers haven’t come on board. If I were to pick something like this in a crowded place where let’s say 300 vehicles passed by in 10 mins and my advertisement ran for twice in those 10 mins so it has a super high visibility than TV in a sense of me getting the number of people over a whole day for a span of a couple of weeks. It is also priced in that manner in comparison with TV where people walk away during an IPL ad for which I have paid 5 lakhs for a spot make no sense. Another issue is that concessionaires who have paid a certain amount wants to amortize or break even it very quickly. In this scenario, they are charging very high rates without a huge scale. Also, one marketer decides to advertise when they see another one advertising, if you are able to get 50 advertisers and throw away prices in the beginning just to experiment and use it. if I see 5 BSFI companies advertising on it, I will also advertise there. Also, as it starts to get traction, the rates can be increased. 

How do you evaluate the impact generated by the OOH campaigns?

We have a lot of faith in OOH medium and we have heard in every one of our campaigns; we have got a lot of feedback that it has worked. In fact, the SME campaign was only done on OOH for 6 weeks with a contact number and the impact measure was that we got a huge number of enquires within these weeks which has built our faith in the medium. 

What do expect from the Outdoor Specialist agencies to drive the success story for brands like yours?

There are four things. To start with Innovation is first because if I have to constantly be on OOH then I have to break the clutter in some way or the other. And innovation initiated by the agency is always appreciated by us, for instance the current campaign i.e. Common Wealth Campaign done by MOMS Outdoor Media Solutions has got tremendous feedback from the market and this idea came from the agency and this is the first time we have worked with them and we were so impressed by the idea and their ability to convert ideas into action with confidence which impressed us a lot. 

Second is the delivery speed, there has to be an ability to meet their commitment and make sure that everything is going to be up on time. third is consistency in payment, billing and process should be on-board and this clean has to happen on OOH space. Fourth is the selection of sites, the agency should make sure that we get good placement.