'Sites marking by authorities will help'

Average spend on OOH

We spent close to 5-6% to OOH. Last year was the first year of our marketing activity. Earlier we have never concentrated on OOH during our marketing initiatives. We believe we have given adequate amount of budget to the medium.   

Role of OOH

We took a conscious call and we knew that OOH is a very strategic medium and in outdoor it is primarily the key points that need to be targeted and we were very cautious in targeting those points and the outcome was good.
We executed outdoor campaign in 8 cities and we have seen a drastic increase in sales in those particular cities. It is a good medium to create recall and visibility.

Comparative performance of OOH

Comparing OOH medium with other mediums wouldn't be justified; the reason is that the kind of exposure and eyeballs electronic gets can't be compared with outdoor medium. However OOH is a particular medium where you select a few sites at certain locations and in this context, the outdoor medium is effective. Overall it wouldn't be wise to compare one medium with another as they all have their pros and cons. 
 
Exploring formats

We look at sites considering their footfalls, so we select sites having higher footfalls during the morning and evening. We take formats such as BQS, unipoles and big hoardings. FMCG is a commodity based segment and it is very important to understand your target audience.  We haven't used digital OOH but we have seen some innovations in OOH and we would be going ahead with them.

Strong OOH markets

Talking about the cities where we had done the branding, Delhi and Mumbai have the maximum potential when it comes to OOH. The maximum share was distributed amongst these cities.

Defining innovation

We constantly look at new designs. We liked the one recently done by McDonald's where they fire the burger in the morning and by 6 pm the whole burger disappears in Mumbai. OOH is a good medium and as for innovations, one can't predict. Innovation is very subjective because everyday new things come up. But we are a brand which loves innovation. We executed the City Cha Raja event in Mumbai during Ganesh festival wherein we made a 5 feet tall Ganesh idol out of rice and it was one example of our innovation.

Challenges in innovation

One major issue which most of the brands are facing right now is that locations are cluttered. In a particular area there is a site for Rs 3 lakhs and for 1.5 lakhs as well. There is no benchmarking in rates. These things are not properly managed. Another issue is that there are illegal and legal sites and to know which are legal and illegal is difficult for a brand.  
         
Creative approach to campaigns

First and foremost the idea behind using is driven by innovation. The OOH medium gives an enhancement to the whole marketing. We were doing an on-ground initiative and to make higher visibility and recall and brand awareness, we executed the OOH campaign on the same theme. In terms of innovation we did cut-outs and other innovations. Also we selected the particular colors for the OOH campaign after doing a survey. We took all the options of innovations such as back-lit and selected the colors which look most impactful and are best suited. We took a keen interest on the creative part of the OOH campaign. And now we are thinking of creating much better creative's than before.    
 
Measuring Impact

We executed campaigns in 8 cities and sites were taken located near to our stores so there were higher footfalls and increase in sales as well. We executed a 360 degree campaign so each medium contributed. 

Message to media owners/authorities 

I would request government agencies or state bodies to intervene and figure out if they can possibly mark some locations or give some identification or id number and categorize them, then it will be easier. Therefore any brand or brand owner can figure out the sites. Also when any site is leased out to a media owner, they can put a cap on sites rates.