The year 2014 has
been a challenging one for some sectors of the economy and a time of hope for
others with the coming of the new government at the center. Overall, both trade
as well as manufacturing have been sluggish. Outdoor like
other advertising platforms is a barometer of the health of the economy.
OOH grew by a 15 to 20 per cent in the last one year despite increased
competition, unenthusiastic buyers and galloping inflation.
In this scenario marked by rising operational costs, stiff competition and
high inventories, Global responded by innovating its price, product as well as
service offerings. We created Asia's biggest hoarding in Bandra, threw a rope
to cash-strapped real estate firms by offering barter deals and flexible
payment options and offered complimentary PR and social media support.
We have entered an interesting phase as far as the real estate sector is
concerned. High rates of interest on home loans coupled with rising unit prices
have built up big inventories as high as 15 months in some parts of the
country. In this situation marked with serious cash flow issues, real estate
players are offering discounts, easy payment facilities and other facilities to
attract clients. Global is meeting this challenge by offering hoardings on EMI,
and on barter to its builder clients across India. Mumbai’s buyers, who wish to
invest in a second home as well as holiday villas and plots, have to be made
aware of projects in markets that offer more reasonably priced properties with
better ROI. We are making special efforts in this direction and have executed
several campaigns in the last few months – the latest being for XRBIA in Pune
which was a grand success.
If I have to note one big highlight in the year behind us, it would be the
marked improvement in political campaigning. All parties led by the ruling
party at the centre used OOH as a primary medium to send their message across
to voters along with digital and social media. The last Lok Sabha campaign has
changed the face of election campaigning in India for ever. This is good news
for OOH as well as for advertisers in general as it underlined like never
before the power of OOH as a medium.
OOH has a long way to go before it can serve the grand designs of our PM to
turn India into a global manufacturing hub. We continue to struggle with red
tape, lack of standard norms and arbitrary levies and delays in decision
making. There is also an urgent need for transparency, regular monitoring and a
system that measures OOH media on the basis of accepted metrics. In several
cities there are restrictions on erecting digital billboards that come in the
way of developing new properties. These factors come in the way of growth of
those in the outdoor business and also create trust issues between service
providers and clients. One hopes that the PM will look into all these issues
and work towards the creation of standardised guidelines for outdoor properties
that include new, better, and transparent rules for the erection, leasing and
licensing of billboards and other outdoor media.
