'Need standardised rates'

Spend on OOH

If you take the brand Tanishq, it has changed drastically in the last five years. From Rs 4,800 crore, we have crossed Rs 10,000 crore. Accordingly our budgets have also increased, sales have improved and OOH is part of the same change. Our budgets have gone in three folds in last five years. We take the outdoor medium as a reminder media.





Key markets in the state

Lucknow being the capital is obviously the focus market but eastern and western UP markets are also getting stronger. We have North India's largest store in Lucknow, so the budget for Lucknow will obviously be much higher compared to cities like Agra & Varanasi.

Preferred OOH formats

We mainly prefer billboards.

Performance of OOH in comparison with other states

We have a way of measuring media traffic. The fact is that response from press is always better because we can measure the immediate impact. But having said that, outdoor's impact can be seen from the queries we get that can be attributed to an outdoor campaign. Around 7% of our customers come through outdoor medium.  Our interaction with them reveals that very often they get information on our store and schemes from a hoarding they passed by.

Campaign Executing challenges

Local authorities do co-operate; but executing large scale campaigns are not easy here; there are too  many regulatory bottlenecks. But since we go through agencies the job gets easier for us.

Factors that can drive higher OOH spends

Innovations are indispensible and we should have more of them. We have been trying for LEDs, but the sites don't match our expectations. Even if we look at using TVs inside the store, audio is still a challenge, so we can't communicate in the right manner.

Message to the industry

The industry is still unorganised and it poses a lot of challenges to us. Vendors should be more organized and there should be some standardisation in rates as well 