“OOH growth one of the highest in 2021,” says Sam Balsara

“Tough times don’t last, tough people do,” said Sam Balsara, Chairman of Madison, in his key note address on the theme of ‘The Rise and Rise of OOH’, during the India Talks OOH  conference held at Sahara Star in Mumbai on March 8. Striking a positive and reflective note, Sam took the audience through some data to reiterate the position of the OOH industry, with respect to other media.

“We estimate the OOH industry to be at Rs 300 crore this year, still Rs 500 crore less than we what we achieved in 2019, with a depleted share of 3.3% less than what we achieved in 2019. While adex had surpassed 2019 high, OOH has yet to do that,” he said, but added on a positive note,  “The growth achieved by the Outdoor medium was one of the highest compared to any other medium in 2021.“

Sam also pointed out that compared to 2020, Indian OOH gained some share of the total adex in 2021, while the global OOH lost share in 2021.” 

While talking about some of the common challenges that are slowing the growth of Indian OOH, Sam reiterated the need to get more serious advertisers into the OOH fold, and added that creative standards are among of the primary challenges that could addressed more easily. After all, as he pointed out, no other medium’s creative attracts as much attention as that of OOH.

He also presented some striking examples to draw attention to the need for impactful creatives. “Use of simple communication principles can increase the effectiveness of Outdoor for the advertisers by at least 10 times,” Sam pointed out. He concluded his presentation by  demonstrating the power of the medium when it is supported by the right creative strategies.