'Need more cost effective infrastructure solutions'

Can you highlight the kind of equation SPS Group shares with OOH as a medium? And what role does Outdoor play for a brand like yours?

In this era of convergence of media, our group is keeping itself abreast with all the emerging techniques to advertise our brands like Elegant Steel (TMT bars), MW (Electrical Products) and Bakefresh (Biscuits). Outdoor medium plays a major role in building mileage for our products.  We use different modes and mediums of outdoor displays such as hoardings, full body bus branding, bus back branding, bus shelters, pole kiosk, railway station branding, traffic signals and other effective mediums as and when required.
 
SPS has used outdoor in many innovative and interesting ways to push its varied plans and services. Can you indicate what share Outdoor enjoys in the over-all media mix of SPS Group in percentage terms?

SPS is an established organization with its distinct brands in East India and we now mainly focus on brand image building PAN India. We spend around 60% of our advertising budget in outdoor displays.

The campaigns that have been rolled out by SPS seem innovative and interesting in their approach; the creative seem tailored for Outdoor as a medium. Could you share with us the thought process behind these?

We avoid crowding of information as the outdoor display visibility is offered at a glance. Hence we try keeping our visuals simple and to the point, so that the message is clear and impactful. Our visual composition consists of an image, our brand logo and the visuals commensurate with the strong one liner we use.

Could you throw some light on the parameters based on which site selection happens for the Outdoor campaigns? What are the factors that are crucial for a brand like you? Also, what are the kind of formats SPS predominantly uses?

Hoardings are a smart and easy way of providing effective recall value for a brand like us. But choosing the right site in accordance with our products and its target group is one of the most important aspects of outdoor advertising. A few important parameters we keep in mind while choosing a site are:-

Location - The location of the site is the first step towards choosing one. Location advantage is an important consideration as one needs to identify the traffic flow in choosing the site area. The site should have maximum viewership.

Clear View - There are various types of sites that cater to our target audiences. So essentially we try to display our hoardings on routes where we witness maximum traffic mobility and the hoarding should have sufficiently clear view.
 
Clutter Free Area - Most importantly we make sure that our hoardings are placed in locations where there are not too many hoardings around and are clutter free.

How does SPS Group ensure the monitoring of sites for the outdoor campaigns?

We have a team who give surprise visits and also take snaps of the location where the hoardings are up, to know the right condition at regular intervals. Our sales team also monitor the sites time to time .We also seek report from the media owners we work with, and also share our reports with them so that the work goes on smoothly. Monitoring is always a team effort and it can only be ensured if the brands work in collaboration with the agencies and vice-versa.

How does SPS plan to use Outdoor as a medium in the future? What agenda and expectations lie ahead in the context of Outdoor?

SPS would continue to explore the most evocative avenues to establish a rapport with the consumer. Every possible advertising technique is used to communicate directly with the consumer. The aim is to ensure a positive feedback from our customers. We would also like to try new innovations like LED Lights in our hoardings, besides digital scrollers and 3D effects. 

There lies a huge opportunity of growth when it comes to OOH as a platform; but there should be a collaborative effort on the part of industry professionals to invent more cost-effective and novel techniques in terms of infrastructure of the media platforms and use of innovation which would be more impactful for the brands.