OOH metrics, disruptive thinking, Amul’s relationship with OOH

Michael Steinberg, CRO, StreetMetrics gave an insightful presentation on the importance, need and subsequent adoption of audience metrics tools in the OOH sector and showcased how his organization has managed to achieve this in this transit media sector with their measurement tool. He said there’s a need to measure how audience behaves due to exposure to OOH ads and the ensuing performance based on that. Michael emphasized that OOH must be data driven and the subsequent results must be actionable. 

While it is always a challenge to lift the energy of an auditorium, especially after a hearty meal, the post-lunch sessions at OAC 2023 saw the crowd glued to their seats. 

The session started with a packed auditorium to witness Sudhanshu Mani, Creator, Train18/Vande Bharat deliver his inspirational address ‘Disruptive thinking – The secret sauce of business transformation’. Mr. Mani gave an awe-inspiring talk quoting Shakespeare, and shayaris to the delight of the audience. To run an organization successfully, he spoke about the importance of loving the work that one does, the people who work there and the organization itself and this love needs to be constructed and isn’t just found. 

It is essential to give a platform, encourage and listen to people down the hierarchy in an organization because everybody has ideas and all we need to do is respect it. It was Mr. Mani’s dream to revolutionize the Indian Railways and that came true with the Train18 (a.k.a Vande Bharat) project. He reminded everyone that it is important to try and accomplish their dream, and while the result may not in our hands, one must fulfil the duty of giving it our all and eventually, we will be successful in achieving what we set out to do. He encapsulated with a powerful quote, “Look after your bread and butter, but don’t let your dreams die!”

The inspirational talk left the audience wanting more from and Jayen Mehta, Managing Director, GCMMF Ltd. (Amul) gave them just that with his talk ‘Amul – India’s largest Dairy Brand Built on OOH’. Jayen took the audience through a delightful history of the company starting with the creation of the iconic ‘Amul girl’ by Sylvester Da Cunha in 1966. A brand icon, the mascot is extremely recognizable so much so Amul spends less than 1% of its turnover on advertising! He went on to explain how Amul is a brand of the people as it is perhaps the only brand consumed by people belonging to any and every economic class. 

A reason Amul has been so successful is because the brand’s currency isn’t milk but the trust of millions of producers and billions of consumers.