The Hindu Business Line : The signs of the times

YOU are an advertiser on a shoestring budget (let's say Rs 25,000). You want to reach out to your city's audience through a localised medium. Let's look at the options: you can get a 16 col cm ad in a mainstream newspaper tucked away in the city pages. Or you can get a full-page ad in a neighbourhood newspaper with a meagre circulation. Or for the same money, you can rent approximately six hoardings across the city. You can also pick the area according to your target group as well as also choose the size of the hoardings. With the entry of attractive vinyl skin hoardings, you can even be sure about making the necessary bang for every buck that you have invested.

At a relatively low cost, a billboard can make tremendous impact on passers-by. There are reportedly 2,600 hoardings in Chennai alone. Today, almost every metro's skyline is populated with hoardings of different types: with lighting (front-lit, back-lit), without lighting, painted, vinyl skin, splits and electronic billboards. Vinyl skin hoardings, in particular, grab your attention immediately. But these come at a price. If a painted hoarding costs Rs 6 to Rs 20 per sq ft, vinyl would cost Rs 45 to Rs 90 per sq ft (in Chennai).

Using the outdoor media

The medium of outdoor offers tremendous opportunities for an advertiser. Hoardings, in particular, have become a mainstay in the media plans of several brands that are focussing on a fragmented localised medium to communicate their message. "Earlier, it was just a reminder medium, today it has become a primary medium of communication," says A.S.Venkhat Ramani, Managing Director, Century Advertising.

However, Sam Balsara, Managing Director, Madison Communications, points out that there have not been many successful campaigns that have been run exclusively on outdoor media. "Outdoor will be a supportive medium," he says. Balsara explains that the lack of knowledge and focus among the creative people in ad agencies to design exclusively for outdoor has resulted in the medium's potential not being fully exploited. "Often, an outdoor campaign is just a modification of the print campaign. In the US or the UK, this is not the case," he says.

Ajay Vidyasagar, General Manager, Regional Channels, Star TV, believes that hoardings, at best, can only be a secondary vehicle for communication. "It's not going to work if you use outdoor like press,"he adds. U Jayraj Rau, Vice-President and Client Services Director, HTA believes that this medium needs to be used more innovatively so as to derive the maximum mileage. For instance, HLL had a huge white illuminated moon floating near Marine drive in Mumbai for a promo for Fair&lovely. "It's up to the client and the ad agency to use new and creative ways," he adds.

Industry in transition

The total market for hoardings all-India is estimated at Rs 400-500 crore. However, the current downturn has affected the business. Prior to this, the medium had its share of hassles, some serious enough to threaten its survival. "There was the issue of clutter, then came the issue of legality," says HTA's Rau. However, what plagues this industry is the presence of a large chunk of unorganised players and some of them who breach every rule in the book to make a quick buck. The business is ridden with shoddy practices: contractual obligations not met, rules flouted and taxes not paid. "It is this lack of professionalism that has affected people like us who follow the rules," says a hoarding agent. Ownership is highly fragmented with only one or two large players offering professional services. Yet, offering scientific research and value-added services is unheard of in the country.

In the US, for instance, a hoarding agent provides the client with a list of demographic data such as the number of people driving past a hoarding, their age group, average salary, spending habits and so on.

There is even a Traffic Audit Bureau (TAB) which is the official agency for verifying the `circulation' of the outdoor advertising industry. The TAB records the number of vehicles and pedestrians passing a given point in order to establish Daily Effective Circulation (DEC). Therefore, an advertiser can spend his money on a hoarding that is located in a region with a high circulation figure. Atomic Outdoor, another company in the US which specialises in ontruck advertising, even offers information whether there is a congruence of the advertiser's target audience and the group that they are catering to.

"Here it's not done. Business is defined by dimensions of price," says John Gray, Director, Sales & Marketing, Cactus Imaging (digital printers). A hoarding agent here pitches his hoarding on his location and size and does a `hardsell' on price. While ad agencies and the new breed of digital printers (for vinyl skin) are constantly striving to meet global standards, hoarding agents (barring a few) are far behind in offering quality service.

Until now it has been a seller's market and the agents have been sitting pretty with advertisers knocking on their doors. However, when there is a drop in demand, their business is badly hit. "Business is 50 per <147,1,0>cent lower than last year," says an agent.

HTA's Rau believes that the hoarding agents should become more proactive in their marketing initiatives. "It's time they started finding their clients rather than just whitewashing their hoardings and waiting for a call," he says. Realising the potential of this medium, advertising agencies themselves are getting into this business. For instance, Madison Communications recently launched Madison Outdoor Media Services (MOMS), which intends to offer value-added services to advertisers and hoarding owners. It claims to have a live database of all sites in important towns and their availability status.

Despite these developments, Cactus Imaging's Gray believes that things will change only if clients start demanding quality service from the agents. "If the buyer becomes more educated, he will start demanding it," he adds.

Until this awareness increases, what the advertiser can demand at the least, is value for money.

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