‘There are strong signs of business rebound’

Business recovery

The Punjab legislative assembly elections scheduled to be held some time in February-March of 2022 will likely provide a boost to OOH business in the state. Government spends on OOH will also increase, providing a fillip to the business. While government publicity spends on OOH fetch comparatively lower rates, they help the media operators to offset the expenditure, at least.

Overall, there is a certain buoyancy in the OOH business, evidenced by the increasing number of briefs that we get from the agencies.

Major markets

Ludhiana accounts for the bulk of the OOH spends, with a share of some 50-60% of the total spends. Mohali, Amritsar and Patiala are among the other key OOH advertising destinations in the state.

Curbs on unauthorised media

For some time, operators with legal media were facing some challenges from illegal outdoor media sites being operated in the neighbouring Yamunanagar, outside the ambit of the municipal body. Now, that curbs have been applied on the illegal business, operators of legal media stand to gain.

DOOH

We have not seen enough traction in DOOH business. Unfortunately, they don’t figure in the plans of agencies. From our experience we have seen that when it comes to full motion content for DOOH screens, most advertising clients do not have that content. So, there is clearly a need for dynamic DOOH content to be created for brands, instead of content for other mediums being adapted for DOOH.