The Big Picture not showing on Mumbai OOH canvas

Bollywood and other regional film industries on an average release 90 movies a month, a multiple campaigns are launched to promote those movies across target cities. But, today with the film industry bearing the brunt of the lockdowns, the OOH spends for movie promotions have nosedived.

In Mumbai, the bulk of the movie promotions on the OOH canvas is taken up by Global Advertisers and Bright Outdoor Media. Commenting on the current business situation, Sanjeev Gupta, MD, Global Advertisers said, “Earlier, every month we would have at least 5-6 campaigns from Bollywood to be executed. Although most of those campaigns ran for 1-3 weeks, we were assured of that business source. However, in the last few months, the Bollywood industry has been inactive. Lately we have had some inquiries come from the industry. Yet, I believe it will take at least till the end of July for the business to revive.”

Yogesh Lakhani, CMD of Bright Outdoor Media, made the observation that “Bollywood and TV GEC channels had been strong spending categories for the OOH industry. That segment contributed 10% of our business turnover. We were handling big Bollywood movie release campaigns. Before the lockdown we were to handle the release of blockbusters like ‘Suryavanshi’ which had to be cancelled, causing a huge loss to our business.” Bright Outdoor Media has executed close to 5000 movie promotional campaigns in last more than 25 years. 

The lockdown has had yet another effect on the OOH and Bollywood relationship. Movies are now being released on the OTT platforms directly, since the cinemas are shut across the country. On this trend, Sanjeev commented that the Bollywood industry advertised directly through media owners, whereas the OTT platforms connect with OOH through the agencies. As media owners, this is a challenging scenario because it takes away their direct customers. Additionally, agencies have been seeking massive discounts on sites from media owners which they are not comfortable with. “Although OTT apps are increasingly appearing on outdoor media, those numbers are not comparable with the usual campaigns done by the Bollywood industry,” he added.

Yogesh is optimistic that Bollywood will stage a strong comeback after the lockdown is lifted. “It is a matter of time but I believe that big screen and silver screen spends will come back to the OOH medium. In fact, following resumption of daily soaps shooting, there are already enquires coming in from the channels,” he shared.