‘OOH gets us 70% of audience volume’

Total Oil India, a recognised-young brand in the lubricant category takes the ouns to explain the details of the lubricant that goes in the automotive and its implications on the vehicle. The brand has continuously been making a noticeable presence on the OOH medium through national wide campaigns in order to support its pan-India network of over 31 depots, 297 distributors and over 40,000 dealers.

The brand’s target audience falls in the category of Sec A & B ranging between the age of 25-55 years, however, reaching out to them is a critical task as the automobile market is vast and diversified in the nature due to various channels are available in the market such as car manufactures’ repair centres, franchisers and then a mammoth local car repair market. Therefore, their OOH campaign suffices the need to communicate directly the car owners who going out to for their automobile service from all those channels mentioned above.

“We have studied that lot of times, the car owners straight away go for the car service and oil change wherein they aren’t deeply involved with oil brands which are being used by their service provider. Therefore, our outdoor campaigns are directed towards building awareness about our lubricant brand, targeting the decision makers, especially those going to the non-franchise car repair stores”, explains Gayatri Ojha, VP (Marketing & Corporate Communications, CSR) Total Oil India.

The brand has been significantly launching integrated marketing campaigns reaching out the maximum number of population and connecting recall dots through various communications means. “For us, the OOH medium comes next to TV medium as it provides a better recall rate and brand awareness. OOH medium provides 70% of audience volume wherein the TV medium gets us 30%-35% of volume”, says Gayatri. In fact, there is a primary study conducted by Kantar TNS once in two years globally which calculates the market visibility of several brands and as per the study, Total Oil India’s recall rate has accelerated in markets like China and India in the year of 2017”, adds Gayatri. In fact, the OOH medium has led to an increase the brand awareness in Tier I & II cities like Indore, Lucknow and more.

The brand has been competing with various other government & state owned lubricant brands through crafting different OOH strategies including short burst quick impact campaigns and long-term iconic positionings at key high car population markets across India. As Gayatri believes that the outdoor medium is all about quintessential placement at impactful locations. “We create a tactical presence at various relevant locations near car showrooms, airports, garages and car service stations to create synergy”, articulates Gayatri. Moreover, the brand tries to employ important vantage points in amplifying the brand’s presence by putting in innovative means. The brand has experimented at multiple locations, formats and junctions such as billboards, gantries, unipoles and pillars provide impact for reach, bus shelters, bus wraps and mobile vans making it a wholesome OOH unmissable deal for travellers.

Analysing the creative growth, the brand has really up their creative game by using more innovations and 3D packages with the time. While in 2009, the brand splurged the market with vanilla creative showcasing the product on static billboards; this year the brand which has adopted a robot as an analogy in their showcases, is running the campaign efficiently supported with 3D cutouts of product packaging. 

A set of innovations emphasizing on product-pack across each of the markets has been a redefining approach and fresh for this product category. Larger than life product packs placed on freeways, high traffic junctions, bus shelters, mobile vans, malls, beaches and road dividers is a first of its kind. Another novel idea has been the highlighting of the product pack on back-lit media through the use of special printing technology. Illumination accentuating brand message has helped the impact media stand out loud and clear in the clutter.

In fact, the brand is experiencing a better traction in small markets through OOH medium. While Gayatri accepts that there are challenges in small cities there are solutions to it as well for instance Chandigarh market which has scarcity of billboards so mobile vans can be placed instead. “In smaller scales, the OOH has a good role to play. There is a concentrated attention as well traffic is high which derives better eyeballs. For us, it becomes  essential to reach those markets as the market growth is pretty promising in such cities”, articulates Gayatri. After trying their hands on every possible format and location on OOH, Gayatri is up for digital format as well.

Before Total Oil India infuse some more moolah into this medium, the brand expects the level of maturity of OOH should increase and bring in system wherein the availability of any particular site should be readily available to accordingly employ their upcoming plans. And like every other marketers, the ROI is also a part of her expectation list, sums up Gayatri.