“There is no better media for regional brands than outdoor”

Outdoor advertising remains the most powerful medium for connecting with regional consumers, Amit Parikh, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of HCF, told delegates at GTOOH 2026, held at Hyatt, Ahmedabad. Speaking in the opening session, titled “When the Medium, Message & Culture Come Together: A Macro Creative View,” Amit argued that no other medium matches outdoor for cultural connect, consumer connect and recall.

Amit said outdoor was as important in 2003 as it is today, and that quality and innovation in the industry have improved considerably. Contrasting it with digital, where a three-second viewing time is considered normal, he said outdoor lets a brand reach the same regional consumer every day, even if only for a few seconds, and stay in their memory.

“Outdoor is such a strong medium that you can hit your regional consumer daily, every day,” he said.

Among recent work, Amit highlighted two campaigns from last year. The first was for Fortune, which wanted to strengthen its market share in Gujarat. Built around the Gujarati love for food and the idea of “Pakko Gujarati,” the campaign ran for one month across more than 125 outdoor sites across the state, which turned out to be very successful.

The second campaign was for Kemchho Papad, a brand launched in India after earlier rollouts in 47 countries. Amit noted that “Kemchho,” a regional word, has gained wide recognition, and that the brand chose Gujarat as the first step toward going national. A Sindhi celebrity was signed as the brand face for their campaign “Sachcha papad, achcha papad”. Under this campaign, 70 to 80 percent of the media plan was allotted to outdoor.

Closing the session, Parikh returned to where he began: the power of the medium for local brands. Innovation, he said, is something that can happen only in outdoor. “There is no better, no best media for regional brands than outdoor,” he said, “especially for local brands.”