'Creative agencies need better medium understanding'

Last updated : July 27, 2017 9:23 pm

Keyur Shah, CEO - Precious Metals Business Muthoot Pappachan Group, on why there are not many creative agencies who specialize in OOH creatives and much more....

Measuring the Medium

There are various ways of measuring OOH effectiveness. Organizations may conduct brand recall surveys focusing especially on any recall with regard to outdoor sites/ messaging etc. Another way could be measuring sales response/ increase in footfalls in showrooms/ branches in the OOH catchment area etc. Like for any media, measurement is critical in outdoor too, given the quantum of spends by various categories in this media. However in India, we still don't have a formal system to effectively measure OOH effectiveness. Most marketers rely upon on qualitative feedback and past experiences. It is important that the industry comes up with a solution for the same.

Percentage of advertising spend on Outdoor medium

It is around 25 to 30% of the overall media spends and it depends on the objective that we have for a particular campaign. As mentioned above, lack of formal measurement system does leave marketers like us to take a call based on past effectiveness. Development of basic metrics like traffic, visibility of existing/ new sites and formal studies on product categories and consumer involvement, competitive environment specific to the category etc. could help increase confidence levels and thereby spend levels as well.

Preferred outdoor format

Currently we look at both traditional as well as non-traditional outdoor media depending on the campaign objective. In outdoor, we are constantly looking at innovative formats as well as innovative ways to deliver our message, as it is important for us to connect with our target audience.

Focus on Digital OOH

Innovative Digital OOH is definitely attractive but it depends on its availability in the catchment areas, and the consumer segments that we are targeting. Our customer profile ranges from lower-middle class to low income segments in urban, semi-urban and rural areas. At times even a very basic but highly visible traditional OOH proves to be very effective.

Creative agencies - Their focus or the lack of it on OOH & their creativity

In India today, there are not many agencies who specially focus on OOH creatives. The creative agencies can come out with interesting options if they have a strong understanding of how the media works, which is still not the case. At times the OOH creative may look brilliant in presentations but when executed has little impact because it may not fit the desired effective metrics that OOH demands. Creative agencies have to remember that OOH is a 4-5 sec mediaâ€¦ if the message cannot be conveyed in that much time, then it has failed. Clients can extract better attention from agencies if they believe in OOH as an equally important constituent of their media mix.

Credit issues faced by media owners

This could be because of a variety of reasons: lack of forecasting usage periods, not understanding client requirements properly, miscommunication with agencies, client, wrong prediction of churn per annum or per quarter, timely payments from clients etc.

Keyur Shah Muthoot Pappachan Group

First Published : August 09, 2013 12:00 am