Friday, March 29, 2024

Advertisement
Home » Viewpoints » ‘We are definitely in support of Digital OOH media’

‘We are definitely in support of Digital OOH media’

By Bhawana Anand - September 27, 2017

Archaic regulatory norms are cited among the key barriers to digital OOH media expansion in India. The positive development is that civic bodies like South Development Municipal Corporation (SDMC) are warming up to the idea of creating an enabling policy environment for DOOH to flourish. In a conversation with Bhawana Anand of Outdoor Asia, Prem Sankar Jha, Deputy Commissioner, SDMC spoke about the body’s outlook on DOOH media. He also touched upon the various new initiatives planned by the authority to boost OOH advertising in the city. Edited excerpts of the interview:

The Delhi outdoor advertising space is perennially faced with regulatory issues. What are the key concerns from your standpoint and what steps are you taking to ensure the industry is well regulated?

Our vision is to safeguard Delhi’s OOH market from unsafe, unregulated and illegal advertisements. As per the norms, illegal advertisements are those which aren’t permitted by the authority. Unsafe advertisements are those which might be permitted by the authority but the vendor has installed them in a way that makes them unsafe for the pedestrians or traffic movement or probably affecting the driver’s reaction time. As per one study, the drivers need to respond within 2.5 seconds and if the time duration extends beyond 2.5 seconds then accidents can happen. Unregulated advertisements are those which are regulated and safe but create clutter and make the city look chaotic. All of these issues need to be addressed.

Outdoor advertisements have several roles to play for different stakeholders involved in the ecosystem. Primarily, it gives space to brands/corporate companies to communicate about their products and services to the masses. It is imperative for the masses as they have a right to information. Another reason is the corporation needs revenue for civic purposes and to fulfill the various basic amenities’ obligations. Biggest part that outdoor can play is that it can enormously perk up the aesthetics of the city.

If we obey the three parameters and start removing all that do not abide by the norms, there will be a shortage of media supply and the demand for media formats will go high which leads to the mushrooming of illegal advertisements. Therefore, we have to take steps that curb both illegal and unregulated advertisement. And as far as cluttering is concerned; we have to decide that up to which extent media formats should be allowed by the authority. Hence the demand and supply ratio should match for smooth dealings. And to handle this sort of situations where there is enough of supply and demand, we have tendered 200 unipoles in our zone so far.

To read more, subscribe to Outdoor Asia

Advertisement

You May Also Like

Advertisement
Advertisement
Have You Say
Advertisement