Outdoor ASIA - July 2018

6 August 2018

EDITOR’S NOTE

OOH landscape will see tectonic

shifts

The OOH landscape in

India, as it stands today,

is barely suggestive

of the tectonic shifts

that it will undergo in

the near future as new

technologies, renewed

customer expectations,

regulatory actions

and societal demands

impact the contours of

this business.

For long the medium

was broadly defined by static billboards that dot the

city landscapes, serving as a reminder media that

attracting only residual ad spends. However, the

rapid transformation of urban India infrastructure,

complemented by modernisation of urban transport

systems and transit hubs, and development of

technology parks, malls and cineplexes that are

massive youth congregration points have created

avenues for putting up OOH media that command

captive audiences and go beyond the call of advertising

to deliver public goods. From this standpoint, the

Indian OOH industry could be a major beneficiary of

Government of India’s mission to develop 100 smart

cities across the country.

Developed countries like the UK have already

witnessed OOH industry’s engagement in smart

city development. Naren Patel, CEO of UK-based

Primesight, says that OOH has a vital role in the

development and evolution of smart cities. In an

interview featured in this edition, Naren observes

point out that “we have the benefit of having assets

in city centres, with the ability to connect to power

and the internet. We are very excited to have started

the process with InLink in the UK. However, we have

only scratched the surface. As an industry we need

to start offering air quality monitoring, 5G small

cell integration and providing useful data from our

locations to the cities that we serve”.

While the Indian OOH industry was hamstrung

for want of a common currency for audience

measurement, new technologies are making the

whole task of developing audience metrics a lot

easier and more reliable. Geopath has taken strident

steps in this direction. Kym Frank, President of the

non-profit organisation in the US, asserts that using

technology OOH is emerging as one of the best

measured channels available to advertisers. “From

cell tower triangulation to WiFi, GPS to beacons, not to

mention the availability of anonymous sensors – the

availability of data has skyrocketed. OOH advertising

doesn’t suffer from bots, fraud, fragmentation, and it

can’t be blocked like other channels”.

This edition of Outdoor Asia, being released at the

14th Outdoor Advertising Convention (OAC) in Mumbai,

captures the perspectives of OOH business leaders in

the US, the UK, Australia and South Africa, viewpoints

of major advertisers on the Indian OOH canvas, as

well as assertions of Indian OOH leaders who have

acquired Metro media assets and advertising rights at

some of the non-metro airports.

I hope that you will derive good value from the articles

presented in this edition.

Best wishes.

Rajiv Raghunath

Managing Editor