Large formats work best in Bihar & Jharkhand: Reliance Communications
By M4G Bureau - June 11, 2014
Reliance Communications prefers to use the large formats to reinforce its OOH presence in Bihar and Jharkhand. While the brand acknowledges the relevance of the medium in connecting with consumers in the two states, Vikas Singh, Marcom Head - Bihar & Jharkhand, Reliance Communications, believes the local OOH industry needs to adopt a more professional approach to business. Excerpts from the interview:
How
has your spend on OOH in Bihar & Jharkhand changed
(increased/decreased) in the last few years? Could you elaborate with
numbers? We have made major changes in our budget for this
region. Now we allot the budget fairly as per the requirements of a
campaign. For instance, our OOH budget goes higher during a product
launch and festival seasons.
Which are your key markets in the two states?In Bihar,
Patna, Muzaffarpur, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Begusarai are key markets, and in Jharkhand Ranchi and Dhanbad are key places.
Any preferred format which you think works better in these two states?We
mainly employ large format sites such as hoardings and for highway
branding, we take formats like wall wraps. We don't venture into the
interior areas. In our business, new products come every day so it
becomes very difficult to handle smaller formats while putting up new
flexes and removing them. We prefer to do the innovations on OOH medium
at our headquarters as we think innovations are essential to stand out
of the clutter. One drawback that because there is a large number of
media available on the streets these days a brand does not enjoy high
visibility even by using large formats.
Compared to other
states how does OOH perform for you in rest of Bihar & Jharkhand
excluding Bihar? What are the challenges there?The challenge
in the interior is that the sites are non-lit and so not visible during
night time. Another issue is that the local industry has not imbibed
the art of working and professionalism. The local technicians and
workers have not perfected the art of mounting and removing the flexes.
Even transporting the material is a huge task in this region.
What
would make you spend more on OOH in Bihar & Jharkhand (i)
Relaxation of the rules and greater authority support; (ii) more
initiatives from the OOH industry; (iii) digital
initiatives/innovations; or (iv) any other factor?The
biggest problem lies with electricity. Electricity is a primary
requirement for OOH to make the campaign visible and to execute any kind
of innovation such as neon, motor-related OOH, etc.