OOH has the reach but brands want the numbers

At Gujarat Talks OOH 2026, held at Hyatt, Ahmedabad, a power-packed panel of marketers from FMCG, retail, real estate and technology came together to discuss “Do OOH budgets justify the market’s potential?”

Moderated by Lekshumanan Annamalai, Co-Founder and CEO of Coral Media, the panel brought together Parth Patel, MD of Kavisha Group; Raj Hadvani, Director and CEO of Gopal Namkeen; Afiya Malek, Senior Brand Manager of Hocco; Rohit Markanday, Associate General Manager of AWL Agri Business Ltd; Druma Mehta, VP – Marketing of JadeBlue Lifestyle; and Darshit Sanghani, Marketing Officer of Odoo India.

Opening the discussion, Lekshumanan asked the panelists whether OOH spends justify the market’s potential.

Going first, Rohit Markanday of AWL Agri Business Ltd drew a comparison with health measures such as BMI and daily calorie intake, asking agencies and media owners to establish the right number of OOH units for a city like Ahmedabad and the ideal campaign duration for objectives ranging from packaging changes to consumer promotions.

He also urged agencies to think beyond hoardings and bus shelters, noting that AWL has branded a train locomotive. “Engine is the moving hoarding,” he said. “It travels across India.” He added that the company’s spends on OOH have grown four to five times in five years, and that it now invests heavily in melas and festivals such as Puri Rath Yatra and Durga Puja.

Gujarat’s growth story

Darshit Sanghani of  Odoo India said the state’s momentum strengthens the case for outdoor. “Everything in Gujarat is growing in every aspect,” he said, pointing to infrastructure, entertainment and large events, including the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Ahmedabad.

On measurement, he explained that Odoo uses outdoor purely for brand building and tracks branded search volume before and after a campaign. “If search volume has increased 40 to 60 percent, we can attribute at least 25 to 30 percent to the outdoor campaign,” he said.

Sniper versus carpet bombing

Druma Mehta of JadeBlue Lifestyle said every campaign needs its own strategy and described how the brand balances OOH and digital. “TV is like an air force, carpet bombing. But if you want to go regionally, OOH is the best medium,” she said. “Digital is like a sniper.”

In Gujarat, where the brand is already strong, JadeBlue leans digital. In the 11 cities outside the state, it first builds awareness through large hoardings and then retargets digitally. She also flagged the gap: “I can attribute digital. That part is missing in outdoor, which I would request agencies and media owners to help brands with.”

Speaking about apparel, she also said digital OOH is becoming important because it can show multiple garments, unlike a standalone unipole or hoarding that carries one. “For an apparel brand, digital OOH will have more recall because we are showing different clothes,” she said. JadeBlue uses print in the metros as it aims to become a national brand, and uses BTL mainly for large store launches.

Innovation and engagement

Afiya Malek of Hocco said OOH has held its ground against digital migration. “It is one of the only traditional media that has doubled in spite of the digital migration,” she said. For Hocco, she added, the aim is to make consumers stop, as with its bullet-shaped ice cream hoarding created with Mirzapur. “The engagement has to go beyond visibility for it to make an impact for us,” she said.

On the media mix, she said ATL and BTL must work  together. “BTL is the first interaction, the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) for my customer, and ATL is extremely important for brand building. They cannot work in isolation,” she said, adding that India is diverse and every state and city behaves differently.

No single medium

Raj Hadvani of Gopal Namkeen said their brand splits its spend roughly equally between ATL and BTL, with the mix shifting by product and geography. “I cannot rely on any single medium for communication, because my customer may be stuck in traffic, sitting in a car,” he said.

Real estate: from hoardings to experiences

Parth Patel said hoardings have replaced newspapers as the main medium for developers. “Whenever we want to launch something, the first thing that comes to mind is whether hoardings are available. We can even delay a campaign because a hoarding is not available,” he said. For real estate, he added, OOH is a brand-building exercise rather than a direct sales driver, so cost matters less than the right location.

He described how his company went from 40 hoardings on day one to just four sites on main crossroads, which have built a premium brand image in two years. “You don’t get to know in digital media, because there is FMCG, fashion, travel. You get lost,” he said. He added that hoardings serve different audiences. “For employees, there is a pride in seeing the brand on a hoarding. For retailers and distributors, it is reassuring.”

The discussion closed with panelists agreeing on the fact that OOH delivers visibility, recall and pride, but that agencies and media owners must now back it with research and measurable benchmarks for the brands to increase their budget allocation in OOH medium.