DOOH is showing increasing traction as a performance medium: Experts

After facing a slump during the pandemic times, OOH advertising has swung back in 2022. According to IMARC Group’s latest report, titled “India Digital OOH Advertising Market: Global Industry Growth, Share, Size, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast during 2022-2027”, the India digital OOH advertising market size reached $1.5 billion in 2021. Looking forward, IMARC Group expects the market to reach $3.2 billion by 2027, exhibiting a growth rate (CAGR) of 14.7% during 2022-2027.

The Madison Report pegged the outdoor advertising growth at 69 per cent in 2021 compared to 2020. The report further mentioned that Rs 2,178 crore was spent on OOH in 2021, significantly way less than the Rs 3,495 crore spent in 2019, but visibly more than the Rs 1,292 crore spent in 2020.

With the rise in spending on OOH, we have seen tech giants like Google, Spotify, and Netflix taking keen interest in advertising via Outdoor Advertising and leveraging outdoor media via creative and innovative methods. To stand out, these giants are using billboards in creative, new ways to capture consumers’ imagination, attention, and – ultimately – business.

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Digital OOH, in the current scenario, is playing a significant role in Outdoor Media Advertising. When talking about innovations and creativity, DOOH is stepping a foot in front of marketers. As per the report by GroupM, “DOOH campaigns look to be powerful drivers of direct action by consumers; half of the respondents who had seen DOOH ads said they encourage them to make a purchase ‘there and then’ and two-thirds said they had encouraged them to search for more information online.”

GroupM also mentioned that more than three-quarters (77%) of those seeing DOOH ads believed DOOH ads were quite or very informative and 50% that they connect them with their favorite social media channels.

The key highlights from the report of Statista state that Ad spending in the Digital OoH Advertising segment is projected to reach $113.60 million in 2023. With a projected market volume of $5,188.00 million in 2023.

How are Brands leveraging Outdoor Media and their expectations from OOH in 2023?

Though a static medium, the recent outdoor campaign by Zomato- Blinkit combine made the medium come alive and talked about across media platforms and becoming viral. It started when Blinkit put up a hoarding in Mumbai stating “Doodh Mangoge Doodh Denge”, an improvisation of a popular dialogue from a Bollywood movie. Zomato, a brand known for its creative advertising, quickly put up a hoarding next to the Blinkit one that said, “Kheer Mangoge, Kheer Denge”. Soon this trend was picked up by other brands who joined this OOH banter.

Elaborating on this campaign, the marketing team of Zomato told Adgully, “With most billboards, we have up to 2 seconds to pique a commuter’s interest and tell our brand story. Short, contextual messages – delivered in a conversational tone – help quickly connect with the viewer and earn us ‘mental high-fives’. And often, these ‘mental high-fives’ transform into hilarious UGC with creators having ‘conversations’ with our billboard, or using one as a setup or punch in Reels. Assets that become part of social chatter deliver many times the impressions than would be garnered offline. While the jury is still out on the incremental effectiveness of these campaigns, the additional virality has helped bring down the cost per impression significantly.”

Rise in ad spends

Gautam Bhirani, Managing Director, Eyetalk Media Ventures, observed, “In the overall marketing mix, Out of Home Advertising (OOH) on an average accounts for 5-6% share. However post-pandemic things have been good for the OOH industry due to the change in consumer behaviour and decline in the online ad market, which is driving the shift and bringing back investments to traditional advertising channels.”

He further said, “The OOH advertising ecosystem’s share will increase considerably because of Digital OOH (DIIH). In the last 12-18 months, with the technological advancements and increase in connected display networks, Digital Out of Home revenue has already increased from Rs 150 crore to Rs 400 crore. From large format digital billboards now seen in metros to thousands of new screens in Corporate Hubs, Residential, Restaurants, Gymnasiums, and Malls, DOOH has become the key growth driver for the OOH Industry.”

“Another major growth factor is Programmatic Advertising, with tech giants like Google and Yahoo taking the big leap and bringing DOOH to the digital advertising ecosystem making it part of a larger omnichannel mix,” Bhirani added.

Outlook for outdoor advertising in 2023

Anurag Mehta, Co-Founder, Option Designs, noted that the industry outlook for the advertising industry this year looks positive, with a lot of scope for innovation and growth. “If speaking about DOOH, we are likely to see an increase in investment. The growth of digital media has enabled growth in a lot of fields and advertisers have started to recognise its potential for reaching audiences. We can expect advancements in technology, potentially leading to more interactive and immersive experiences. Data and Artificial Intelligence have also been making waves across all industries, we can expect a lot of developments even in the advertising field. Overall, DOOH seems like it might have a bright and interesting future up ahead, and we anticipate rapid growth and innovation in this area,” he added.

Tanushree Radhakrishnan, Head - Biddable, GroupM, pointed out here that while the growth for adverting industry looks subdued, with an impending recession, layoffs and potential change in market dynamics, programmatic advertising have come of age. She further said that the conversations these days stem around how to increase reach through programmatic or more interestingly explore what role programmatic can play in the new age media like CTV, Audio and DOOH.

Digital OOH is still a nascent format, and the industry is still learning and improving how to transact OOH formats programmatically. We are still reeling from the post-pandemic effects where the entire country was under lockdown, so marketing professionals are looking for innovative methods to target customers who are back on the go, and DOOH is resurgent.

“While the DOOH is currently pegged at just 1.5% of the overall adverting industry, there is a huge potential for growth considering it brings the best of both worlds. Key elements like location targeting, the ability to dynamically adjust creative in close to real-time, and the capacity to allow consumers to interact via their handheld devices are welcome enrichments to conventional OOH. Various studies have found that consumers welcome DOOH in their surroundings, often quoting that it adds to their experiences outside their home, prompts interactivity and engagement with the advertisers’ messages, and increases their propensity to make a purchase,” Radhakrishnan explained.

DOOH is showing increasing traction as a performance medium too. Marketers have indicated that the significant investment they plan to put into DOOH is driven by programmatic enablement, the ability to target, and the newly enhanced capabilities of DOOH screens. “We are cognizant of the hindrances and plan ways when launching new campaigns, nonetheless in the end engaging creative, quality audience data, transparency, visibility, and pricing advantages are worth it. With consumers back on the move for work, shopping, or travel, DOOH ad spend is projected to show steady growth over the next five years,” Radhakrishnan added.