'Plenty of scope for effective use of OOH'

Approach to and role of OOH

The  best  part  of  outdoor  is  that  it  is  a  very  much localized media to communicate with the target base. So we make our communication plan more efficient and cost effective, that's the reason we have parked more budgets for outdoor.


About  60  to70  %  of  the  marketing  budget  will  be dedicated  to  outdoor  media,  and  we  are  going  about it  in  an  absolutely  selective  way.  If  you  look  at  a  city like Mumbai where we are present in about 6000 retail outlets out of the 30,000 - 35,000 retails outlets, we cannot think of any other cost effective media, so the best tool that we have to communicate is outdoor as it is the best option available.

Exploring formats

The  whole  idea  is  that  we  want  to  rationalize  and want  the  communication  cost  effective;  we  need  to communicate with the TG at the right place. As there is absolute clutter in the market and everyone is trying to get attention, we need to have the most cost effective medium.  In  outdoor  we  look  at  billboards  and  bus shelters  with  innovation  and  it  gives  good  retention value to the brand. We also use bus panels and a lot of sampling activities. We  have  done  these  in  Mumbai,  Pune,  Bangalore, Goa, and Kolkata, so far. But we are looking forward to using more billboards and activation.

Innovation in OOH formats

In  billboards  or  hoardings,  we  look  only  at  doing absolute innovation. And when we say innovation, it means absolutely clutter breaking; we want something new to happen on the billboard, and don't want to do something  routine  on  this  medium.  We  don't  mind the production cost going up by 30% or 40%, but the mileage that our brand would get out of the awareness level it will generate, is what even a TV can't match. And that's the reason we are planning a high ratio on outdoor.

Plans for tier II and tier III cities

There is no plan for tier II or Tier III cities at least not during this financial year. After establishing the brand completely in tier I then we will go to 67 tier II cities.

Key Learnings from OOH Experience

Our  marketing  objective  was  very  simple  and  clear  - we wanted to make the brand visible, and we wanted to  create  awareness  for  our  brand.  These  are  the two  basic  objectives  also  have  been  in  the  process of  developing  our  distribution  network.  It  is  not  only about  generating  demand  but  also  creating  pull  for the brand. Overall, it has helped us though we are not sure what kind of ROI we get from it. But on the whole I  would  say  there  are  plenty  of  ways  to  use  outdoor effectively and turn it into an innovative medium