OOH is the most economical medium for outdoor media

Alok Gupta, Director, Graphisads, discusses his journey and the road ahead after winning the Award for OOH Marketing Campaign of the Year for Unnati Fortune Ltd., Gurgaon D TOWER How do you feel after winning this award from Realty Plus? We are naturally delighted to receive this award from Realty Plus. Has it raised the bar of expectation from you for the future? Not really. Because we have always felt we are a few notches above the market as for as real estate advertising goes and that too in outdoor we have proved our leadership position in Delhi-NCR year after year. Our clients always expect the best from us. Do you think the jury process was transparent? Yes. We think so. And felt the same way, when we saw other entries at the awards ceremony. What are your biggest strengths in OOH? We have been a trendsetter as for as Street Furniture media is concerned. We are the only concessionaire to have bagged separate contracts from both MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) as well as DTTDC (through PWD, Delhi Government). We have introduced for the first time a grand innovation in outdoor advertising by the name “Road Block” (also called as Corridor Branding) by which outdoor sites on an entire stretch of Road or Roads are available for one advertiser to advertise his brand. This is bombardment of branding. Imagine wherever one looks, the company or product’s branding will stand out, talk to him, convey the message very clearly and leave a lasting impression on his mind and soul. There is no way a commuter in any vehicle or a pedestrian can miss a stretch of 40-50 sites at one go. It is branding at its phenomenal best. This Road Block advertising is available in and around Lodi Road (near J L Nehru Stadium), Mall Road (Near Delhi University), Africa Avenue (R K Khanna Stadium), ITO BridgeAkshardham-Nizamuddin Bridge stretches. What are the pros and cons of OOH marketing campaign? There are mostly pros; you know OOH is the most economical medium. For example in Delhi at a cost of one quarter page newspaper ad in a leading daily, an advertiser can have one big OOH Board in a very good location for a whole month. You can’t even compare the economy and effectiveness of outdoor media with any other. On the flip side, some outdoor media owners are putting up unauthorized displays which bring bad name to the industry as a whole. How do you deal with your clients? Firstly, we study the background of the client from the perspective of payment to vendors. We get a clear idea on his budget on outdoor media. We understand his requirement in terms of location, duration and any innovation that he is looking at. We have client servicing specialists who deal with the clients as per the situation and level of the advertiser. We approach the client to pitch for other verticals like print ad, electronic media and events/exhibitions also.