Day 1 of Outdoor Advertising Convention 2022 expands OOH horizons, maps new growth opportunities

It was a day packed with insights, ancedotes and fun. Day 1 of Outdoor Advertising Convention indeed set the tone for exploring new growth opportunities in the out-of home advertising eco system by unveiling new market dynamics. More importantly, the day offered an interesting mix of perspectives, all of which have a bearing on the OOH business.

With show host Keisha Lobo adding just the right amount of energy and verve, and with a diverse line up of speakers and topics, the first day of OAC indeed had a lot to offer to a keen audience.

From actor R. Madhavan, sharing his life experiences as part of the inaugural session, to celebrated quiz master  Barry O’Brien anchoring the Quintessential OOH Quiz at the fag end session, it was indeed an eclectic mix of takeaways.

The morning session had Amiya Swarup, Partner, Amiya Swarup, Partner, Marketing Advisory Services, EY, who talked about the ‘Changing contours of the Indian OOH landscape’ , and reiterated the inevitability of technology integration in any marketing campaign. “The OOH media has to adapt at a faster pace to keep pace with the evolving new trends such as Metaverse, NFTS, gaming etc,” said Amiya while emphasising the evolving role of CMOs shaped by newer tech-driven media dynamics. 

Mark Bracey, Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer of Stockholm-headquartered OOH tech firm DoohClick, continued along the same vein, while offering some important tips in his presentation on ‘Digitalising OOH business for smart outcomes’.

“Change is good but make it as painless as possible,” said Mark  while listing down the do’s and don’t’s in digitalising the OOH business. Mark stressed on the need for proper planning, collaboration  and leveraging the right kind of audience data for effective campign outcomes. He also made a very valid point when he spoke about the need to speak a common language  and taking “one approach for a single industry”. Mark summed up by emphasising on the need to automate in order to make the business smarter and get ready for the ‘D-volution’.

From the business of digitalising OOH, the session segued to the theme of ‘Applying neuroscience to OOH Advertising’ presented by Arvind Sahay, Professor of Marketing and International Business at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, and author of the  book, ‘Brands and the Brain: How to use Neuroscience to create Impactful Brands’.

Sharing some unique perspectives on the role of neuroscience, Arvind threw light on the various factors that impact our thought processes and decoded, for the benefit of brand marketers, the brain’s functioning and how the emotional and logical aspects of our brain respond to external stimuli. 

Ajay Mehta, Founder & MD, Interactive Television (iTV), and MD, Kinetic India came next, addressing the audience on the theme of ‘Cinema & OOH advertising: The big picture’,wherein he presented newer dimensions to cinema as an OOH medium and talked about the promising new opportunities in the medium. “The lessons from cinema can also apply to rest of the OOH industry,” he said, while talking about the relevant common factors between cinema and OOH, including the use of new technologies and measurement metrics. Ajay essentially drove home the need to look at the medium in a new way, reset and deliver monitoring solutions for better ROI and highlighted how both the mediums could work together. Technology was in fact a common thread running through the day.

Anant East, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Talon for example spoke on ‘How technology is shaping the OOH renaissance’ drawing from Talon’s own approach to technology and tech collaborations, while Mike Cooper, Global President & Chief Revenue Officer of US-based Adomni, the leading pDOOH company, threw light on the success factors for pDOOH in India markets and elaborated on how technology is constantly redefining how brands engage with their audiences in an efficient manner.    

The day finally culminated with the the Quintessential OOH Quiz hosted by the dynamic Barry O’Brien who kept the audience hooked with his characteristic charm and humour. Another element of interactivity was the Best Audience Question contest, wherein selected questions from the audience qualified for a prize of Rs 10,000. All in all, Day 1 of OAC 2022 proved to be a much needed opportunity for the OOH industry to come together and an exciting come-back for the popular industry event after a three year gap brought on by the pandemic.