Brandstand - zeroing in on OOH audiences

Many fast food outlets around the country are seemingly offering twin opportunities of advertising and on-ground engagements. Brandstand Media is playing a key part in promoting this media option. Gaurav Sahani, Director, Brandstand, opines that more and more brands are now opting for destination-based marketing.

Sahani adds that Brandstand provides the best solutions to advertising clients in an uncluttered environment, thereby delivering instant results. "While a billboard may go unnoticed by many in the outdoor, a branding initiative inside a fast food outlet is not only likely to be seen by most customers but will also help increase the engagement with brands,” he says.

"Moreover, if 700 bills have been issued at an outlet where a branding initiative has been carried out, an average 2,000 people would have visited that outlet. The focus is primarily to reach the right audience which is very critical,” explains Sahani.

Brandstand initiated destination-based marketing at McDonald's outlets and now it has reached stores like Café Coffee Day, Costa Coffee, Pizza Hut, Archies Gallery, Baskin Robbins, Barbeque Nation, HP Petrol Pumps, Oxford Book Stores and more.

The agency has also forayed into Tier II & III cities with this concept. And, interestingly brands are finding this a right medium to approach in the smaller places. Even the audience responses have been at par with the metro TG. "Those audiences are as good as the metro cities of today. They are as advanced as people in the metro cities,” he says.

With these different avenues and various locations available, brands can actually refine their research to tap the appropriate audience. "To connect with kids, brands prefer to go to McDonald's instead of Barbeque Nation, whereas CCD is the right places to connect with the youth, Costa Coffee is apt for upwardly mobile business executives. It is equally important to select the right locations. For instance, outlets based near corporate houses are ideal to reach out to professionals,” says Sahani.

Sahani points out that HP petrol pumps deliver very different results considering the time spent by the customers there is very short. The biggest advantage with advertising at petrol pumps is the larger space available for branding and advertising.  "These places are a good advertising medium as brands can advertise their products in a much bigger way. Brands can also hand out various promotional collaterals at the outlet. They can also chose the particular time of day to run their promotions at such places,” says Sahani.

The branding inside eating joints suit possibly all kinds of categories and brands ranging from movies or tele-serials to telecom services, NGOs, confectionary brands, publishing houses and others.

The outlets provide various advertising media like posters, standees, and tent cards. When it comes to unique properties, gaming zones and sampling zones can be made. "Basically the store manager has the right to place ads as per the design of the stores. We focus on getting maximum mileage and eyeballs for each campaign,” he adds.

"For an Usha fans campaign that targeted kids, we created a fortune wheel for the target audience. We did a campaign for Samsung S2 wherein demos were given inside the outlet. However, such activities would be possible only if there is sufficient space inside the outlet. We did a sampling activity for ITC Dream Cream Biscuits across McDonalds Network in India. Advertising is important but brands are also looking at on-ground activities now,” says Sahani.

Referring to some of the challenges in executing a campaign at the outlets, Sahani says that each locations are unique, so the planning and execution becomes doubly difficult. Also, each media - such as, standees, posters, tent cards -- requires a different kind of handling and maintenance  If a store manager has placed tent cards in the morning, he might have to place a fresh set again in the evening. "To ensure smooth execution we have done complete backend setup for smother implementation of campaigns” says Sahani.

Apart from these, the biggest challenge lies in getting two brands together. "Big brands have their global guidelines which are very stringent with regard to advertising. For instance, you can't have competing products or anything that have quality issues advertising at these destinations. As a result it increases the credibility for the brands who execute their campaigns at these locations,” he states.

The biggest advantage with targeted marketing is that its outcome are measurable. "The advertising brands themselves quantify the data depending upon the outlets. The outlets themselves periodically carry out research on customer engagements,” says Sahani, to underline the effectiveness of destination-based promotions.