Outdoor ASIA - July 2018

44 August 2018

THINK DIGITAL

‘OOH has a vital role in smart

city development’

W

hat are the most distinctive patterns that

you see in ad spends around the globe, and

in particular the UK market? Is OOH competitively

positioned to leverage the growth opportunities in a

changing global business environment?

The key change that is happening in the UK and other

markets is the move away from brand building to

activation. According to the IPA (Institute of Auctioneers

in Advertising), the optimum balance of brand and

activation expenditure remains at around 60:40

with strong evidence that deviation from either side

of this point results in a marked decline in long-term

effectiveness. However, since the launch of Google

and Facebook, advertisers are moving more and more

budgets to activation. Campaigns with activation

objectives rose from 47% of cases prior to the global

financial crisis to 55% subsequently. Over the four years

to 2016, the figure reached 72%.

Although OOH has traditionally been viewed as a brand

building medium, the launch of digital OOH and the

increase in targeting and proximity OOH has ensured

that we have maintained share.

You have been a strong votary of use of new

technologies in OOH advertising, and under your

leadership Primesight has taken pioneering steps

like turning BT phone kiosks into advertising media.

On a larger plane, do you see OOH playing a key role in

the development and evolution of smart cities?

I believe that OOH has a vital role in the development

and evolution of smart cities. We need to continue to

evolve as a medium, and smart cities provide a great

platform for OOH. We have the benefit of having assets

in city centres, with the ability to connect to power and

We need to continue to evolve as a medium, and smart cities provide a great

platform for OOH, says Naren Patel, CEO, Primesight, the UK in an interview to Rajiv

Raghunath. Edited excerpts:

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.

As digital OOH gains ground, where do you see the

conventional formats in the overall OOH mix in the

next 3-5 years in UK and indeed many other markets

around the globe?

Naren Patel, CEO, Primesight, the UK