IOAA – The non-profit organization leading India’s OOH industry to profit

In early July this year the mighty of the outdoor business joined hands to form an association by the name of Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA), which was targeted towards interacting with the local government to create a uniform regulations to safeguard the interests of its constituents; consulting the government in preventing ad hoc decisions taken by them; to act as a catalyst between local government bodies and the outdoor industry; and, creating a friendly environment to solve various matters and obstacles faced by the industry.

IOAA headed by the Selvel Advertising, Jagran Engage, Times Innovative Media Ltd, Clear Channel, Prakash Arts and Laqshya Media is now registered as not-for- Profit Company.

Creativity in outdoor!

Innovation and creativity has always been of prime importance in the field of outdoor advertising. With the need to consolidate the entire message in 8 words and 8 seconds, an excellent outdoor creative is one of the most challenging tasks to achieve. Apart from this, there is the constant need to be innovative… to break form the clutter… and to stand out! But more and more companies are realizing this and are getting creative by the hour! Consider O&M for instance; it has not only outshone itself with every new hutch creative but also maintained the consistency of the brand. Cut outs, neon lighting, extensions and LEDs, you name it and it is happening! Have you seen any creative campaign off late? Do let us know by leaving your comments and images.

Gurgaon Malls ripped of their hoardings!

Have you been to the Gurgaon malls lately? They bear the deserted look with no attractive hoardings and billboards to grab the eye! Following a directive from the enforcement wing of the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department, most of the mall authorities (MG Road DLF City Centre, MGF Metropolitan, MGF Mega City, Sahara and others) had either removed or covered billboards and advertisement hoardings on their malls.

Apparently, the objective of this derivative was to ban those carrying out commercial activities in the malls beyond their sanctioned building plans. But this has cropped up scores of questions in the minds of mall and media rights owners. What about those malls who have the structures in the sanctioned plan? Or is it actually allowed in the sanction plans? This has enhanced further with the other explanation to the same being the hoardings are distractive!

So if you want to express your reaction to this and make your opinion heard… please use the comments box given below and do pour your heart out!

Transit Advertising

Extended commute time along with increase in the number of people traveling by plane or train, bus or cab, car or bike and on foot generates excellent opportunity for an advertiser to create brand awareness through transit advertising. These displays offer outdoor messaging solutions for the masses. Transit products are visible at all hours, with particular strength during rush hour.

Why Transit advertising?
1. Greater reach and frequency: A large number of people spend most of their time outside their homes. They have an active lifestyle away from their living rooms, creating more exposure opportunities in the mobile outdoor advertising arena. Since the vehicles are constantly moving on roads, through the high traffic areas, markets etc. the reach of transit advertising is comparatively higher.

2. Targeted audience: Transit advertising captures the attention of those people who do not have time to read the newspapers at home. It targets the hard-to-reach business audiences, including corporate decision-makers and executive women with high impact ads. Their journey from one place to another exposes them to a number of ads through various transit products.

3. Mobility: Transit products such as buses, trains, etc. are never stationary. They move in and around the city wherein, they provide for a display platform that can cater to a larger target audience.

4. Attention grabber: Transit advertising is a highly attractive medium of advertising. It attracts the attention of the passengers, on-goers and people waiting on the road side. Be it vehicles wrapped in ads or mobile advertising, all formats of transit advertising are attention grabbers.

5. Greater exposure time: The prospective audience always gets enough time to grasp the message either because of the longer waiting time or higher commute time. The message displayed stays with the passenger while they travel, giving him more than adequate time to absorb the ad.

6. Captive audience: The audience in case of transit advertising is captive. While inside a vehicle or at a bus terminal or airport, the audience is mostly sitting idle, hence an impressive creative is bound to catch their eye.

7. Innovative possibilities: Transit formats have a great scope for innovations like LED lights or illuminated backlit boxes or audio options.

Indoor Advertising

Think about the last time you used the restroom of a nightclub or sat in the waiting area of your dentist's office. Would you have read colorful ads placed a few inches or a few feet directly in front of you?

Indoor advertising… It is an incredibly simple yet powerfully effective media featuring eye-catching, witty, full-color ads at high traffic, high-volume public venues where potential customers gather to socialize or work. Indoor advertising catches your audience at the rare time when your customer is actually looking for something to read whether in a waiting area, restroom, lobbies, elevators or any other high traffic area. Hence, increasing your brand’s awareness and recall rate.

Indoor advertising = High exposure + Low cost

Why Indoor advertising?

1. Low cost, high impact: It is a cost effective method that enables high visibility and high impact media placement locations where potential customers are located.

2. Unavoidable attention: There is no page to turn or channel to switch. Your ads will speak directly to your customers and prospective customers with no other distractions. Because the billboards are strategically placed in precise spots that receive unavoidable attention,
Multiplied Impact: Indoor advertising multiplies the impact of the client’s message by ‘parking’ the advertisement directly in front of the viewer in a setting where there is no choice but to read the ads.

3. Attractive, eye catching: It is a proven fact that people watch things that are appealing and pleasing to the eyes. Effective media featuring eye-catching, witty, full-color posters that are placed in attractive frames attract the attention of the viewers and forces them to read the ad.

4. Multiple exposures: The ad placed in an elevator or in the restroom of a public place has multiple exposures as people use them again and again. This generates higher brand recall.
High visibility: This form of advertising is visible everywhere- in coffee shops, elevators, malls, restrooms, waiting rooms etc. They are always before the eyes- simply unavoidable.

5. Longer exposure period: Newspaper and direct mail ads are thrown away within days; television and radio ads disappear in seconds. Indoor Billboards work for 7 days a week, sometimes 24 hours a day. They’re always there!

6. High recall rate: Recall rate in indoor advertising is high because people the concentration levels are higher in any indoor area and people generally become more observant noticing everything around them.

7. Clutter-free advertising: Viewers experience a clutter free advertising as there are a small number of ads displayed on each site. So there are not many advertisers competing with each other.

8. On-premise purchasing: The ad of any brand placed in a famous and big public place leads to higher sales. For example, if a store in the mall has prominently advertised for its latest collection in the mall itself; it is more likely to have increased footfalls. It is an effective way of promoting on-premise purchasing.

9. Eliminates waste: Indoor advertising delivers your exact demographic, you can spend less money and still hit a higher percentage of your desired target market. Essentially, the money is saved by eliminating the waste associated with trying to reach the masses via radio, TV, and newspaper.