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UTI Sees a Myriad Of Opportunities In OOH: Gaurav Suri
By M4G Bureau - January 19, 2015
"Given the nascency of our category (mutual funds), it is only logical for us to fire with all guns to grow the category. This would entail firing with all the armaments, OOH being one such weapon in the armoury,†says Gaurav Suri, Senior Executive Vice President & Head Marketing, UTI Mutual Fund, in conversation with Bhawana Anand. The brand believes assimilation of high-technology and digital interface would make this weapon more powerful communication tool. Edited excerpts of the interview:
How essential is OOH advertising in a 360 degree marketing campaign? What role do you see for OOH medium in your brand campaigns?Today, consumers are spending a sizeable amount of time out of home. This really is the starting point of all planning for us. OOH today provides a myriad of opportunities which are restricted by your imagination and pocket. Right from helping create impact to any experience building or building a brand preference, it is an integral choice for a multi media campaign. Combined with the power of digital, NFC, technological progress in formats/delivery one cannot ignore the OOH advertising solutions. For our brand as well, depending on the objective, we activate the medium to create impact, generate frequency, draw customer traffic to a new location, promote a product in a geographically isolated way, create interactivity with customers, build experience zones for our new services and offerings, etc. In a nutshell, an always-on medium, availability of increasing dwell time locations, growing infrastructure at high traffic location and proliferation of technology/mobile make OOH an integral part of all campaigns.
Indicate what share does outdoor enjoy in the overall media mix of UTI in percentage terms?
Well, on an annual basis it would be close to 10-15%. However, the weights might change from campaign to campaign depending on the objective.
What parameters are taken into consideration while coining the creative and campaign ideas for OOH?
I think we should start by separating the offerings in OOH and then start looking at considerations. At the heart of all messaging should be simple. Layer that with brevity of copy (for a billboard) or contextual messaging for dwell time locations. If the idea is to create impact then treat it like an art installation to make it inspiring and attention drawing.
Some of the considerations which are hygiene for creative development are around an interplay of the following factors:
- Visibility: Typography (font size, line thickness, legibility of typefaces), copy (short copy -- not more than 10 words/ short words), design (space consideration, tactical design), colours (contrasting colours/ colour frequencies and vibrations), imagery (a picture is worth a thousand words so this becomes extremely critical).
- Message: Simplify the message, ensuring that the viewing time is taken into account while crafting something, and having a minimalistic approach helps.
- Location: The intersection of geography, demography and orientation of OOH which should be kept in mind.
- Audience:'Knowing who you are talking to' is extremely important to start defining the creative output. The more details we will have of our intended TG the better will be our output.
- Core Stuff: The idea is really to assimilate this and use the above points as checklist. And we know we would have done a good job when we struggle to take away anything from the OOH creative, not when we can add new things.
Considering the backdrop/landscape of an area, a prominent logo placement, and innovation to catch attention are some additional considerations for developing the creative. As long as the idea blends seamlessly into your everyday life and is non-intrusive we back it to the hilt. I think the task is to think of the medium and develop the creative rather than think television and then adapt the creative. A large part of the eco-system is still doing the traditional things which need to be pushed aside.
UTI spends considerable amount of monies on the outdoor. How is the efficacy of OOH as a medium measured at UTI?
We are an underpenetrated category. An always-on medium helps in delivering localised messages with all pervasive technologies like QR code, NFC, augmented reality, touch screens, etc. It is opening up possibilities of engaging with people and creating curiosity around our category/ brand.
For our new product launches, OOH helps create the impact needed in the short time.
As far as efficacy of the medium is concerned, a common coinage/currency still needs to be evolved. We at our end have started integrating short codes to check creative/campaign effectiveness and can track it to a medium and location. These hold good in cases where a response is desired and sought. For the rest it is still a function of the buzz it creates.
Please throw some light on the parameters you consider for site selection for your outdoor campaigns.
Historically, site selection could have been based on the proximity of a location, high traffic patterns or just based on photographs and map. Today technology makes it possible to listen well and do simple correlations like tweet close to an ambient media/OOH installation. Data combined with analysis can yield more understanding on this.
Today, a large part of all this is an interplay of location and people. Efficacy, reach and saliency can be better harnessed with a greater understanding of data used for site selection. The more data we can give within the brief the more challenging it becomes for the planner to micro target and harness the power of the OOH medium. Things like approach, traffic speed, travel patterns, dwell times in congregation areas, segmentation (who do you want to reach out to) are all finer inputs to get the right output.
In financial services where trust is the core of business relationships, sometimes size does convey that stability/solidity. Therefore, large formats help convey that solidity. Also, in most South Asian markets normally the tallest building will house one large neon of a dominant financial services player in that market. This, more often than not, creates a perception of large size and stability with respect to the ability to manage people's money.
Share with us your views on driving engagement through outdoor advertising, and what UTI is doing on that front.
Engagement and driving consumer experience are key to a brand today. Currently UTI has limited exposure in this field but with technologies like multi-traction, flip book, mobile usage in OOH, we look forward to having more engagement experiences for the consumers
How does UTI ensure the monitoring of sites and campaigns?
Today, with mobile proliferation monitoring is possible at most of the locations. For us a starting point is our presence on the ground. With over 150 offices, presence in 540 odd districts in the country we have a distribution reach second to none. Our extended family is the first port of feedback for monitoring, site selection, etc.
Added to this we also use third party monitoring firms to give us feedback and serve as a dipstick into claimed execution. Our AOR partner Kinetic India has an Android based mobility offering which uses geo tagging and can upload data for real time monitoring as well.
How would UTI use the outdoor as an advertising medium in the future?
At the cost of repeating myself, being early adopters of new technology we would continuously strive to explore the possibilities of the medium. New technologies are emerging and a greater understanding of the interplay amongst those for building engagement and interactivity would be important. Augmented reality, NFC, etc., offer one the potential for pushing boundaries both creatively and disruptively. Better infrastructure, a common currency for measurement, convenient and hassle free guidelines for implementation of such infrastructure, creation of beautiful, clutter-free street furniture, and interactive displays are the key expectations from the eco system.
A planning and monitoring tool which is a basic chassis of the industry rather than individual engines of media agencies is another expectation from the ecosystem. More firms like Proof of Performance are needed by the industry to build capability and create analytics engines which can be used.
Given the nascency of our category (mutual funds) it is only logical for us to fire with all guns to grow the category. This would entail firing with all the armaments, OOH being one such weapon in the armoury.
UTI spends considerable amount of monies on the outdoor. How is the efficacy of OOH as a medium measured at UTI?
We are an underpenetrated category. An always-on medium helps in delivering localised messages with all pervasive technologies like QR code, NFC, augmented reality, touch screens, etc. It is opening up possibilities of engaging with people and creating curiosity around our category/ brand.
For our new product launches, OOH helps create the impact needed in the short time.
As far as efficacy of the medium is concerned, a common coinage/currency still needs to be evolved. We at our end have started integrating short codes to check creative/campaign effectiveness and can track it to a medium and location. These hold good in cases where a response is desired and sought. For the rest it is still a function of the buzz it creates.
Please throw some light on the parameters you consider for site selection for your outdoor campaigns.
Historically, site selection could have been based on the proximity of a location, high traffic patterns or just based on photographs and map. Today technology makes it possible to listen well and do simple correlations like tweet close to an ambient media/OOH installation. Data combined with analysis can yield more understanding on this.
Today, a large part of all this is an interplay of location and people. Efficacy, reach and saliency can be better harnessed with a greater understanding of data used for site selection. The more data we can give within the brief the more challenging it becomes for the planner to micro target and harness the power of the OOH medium. Things like approach, traffic speed, travel patterns, dwell times in congregation areas, segmentation (who do you want to reach out to) are all finer inputs to get the right output.
In financial services where trust is the core of business relationships, sometimes size does convey that stability/solidity. Therefore, large formats help convey that solidity. Also, in most South Asian markets normally the tallest building will house one large neon of a dominant financial services player in that market. This, more often than not, creates a perception of large size and stability with respect to the ability to manage people's money.
Share with us your views on driving engagement through outdoor advertising, and what UTI is doing on that front.
Engagement and driving consumer experience are key to a brand today. Currently UTI has limited exposure in this field but with technologies like multi-traction, flip book, mobile usage in OOH, we look forward to having more engagement experiences for the consumers
How does UTI ensure the monitoring of sites and campaigns?
Today, with mobile proliferation monitoring is possible at most of the locations. For us a starting point is our presence on the ground. With over 150 offices, presence in 540 odd districts in the country we have a distribution reach second to none. Our extended family is the first port of feedback for monitoring, site selection, etc.
Added to this we also use third party monitoring firms to give us feedback and serve as a dipstick into claimed execution. Our AOR partner Kinetic India has an Android based mobility offering which uses geo tagging and can upload data for real time monitoring as well.
How would UTI use the outdoor as an advertising medium in the future?
At the cost of repeating myself, being early adopters of new technology we would continuously strive to explore the possibilities of the medium. New technologies are emerging and a greater understanding of the interplay amongst those for building engagement and interactivity would be important. Augmented reality, NFC, etc., offer one the potential for pushing boundaries both creatively and disruptively. Better infrastructure, a common currency for measurement, convenient and hassle free guidelines for implementation of such infrastructure, creation of beautiful, clutter-free street furniture, and interactive displays are the key expectations from the eco system.
A planning and monitoring tool which is a basic chassis of the industry rather than individual engines of media agencies is another expectation from the ecosystem. More firms like Proof of Performance are needed by the industry to build capability and create analytics engines which can be used.
Given the nascency of our category (mutual funds) it is only logical for us to fire with all guns to grow the category. This would entail firing with all the armaments, OOH being one such weapon in the armoury.
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