The rise and rise of Digital OOH Media

They are everywhere – huge plasma screens greet you at the airports, restaurants, hospitals, retail chains, banks, etc – infact, everywhere. Besides indoors, huge digital billboards can also be seen on roads.

Indian advertising is greeting the new media, the “Out of Home TV” a TV which follows consumers, educates them on the products or services, helps them making purchase decision and above all entertains them and interacts with them.

With the increasing trend of more and more people spending more and more time out of home, it is the right time for this media to evolve and grow. Already there are almost 7-8 big players who are setting up screens and uplifting the face of Indian outdoor advertising. With addition of almost 800-1000 screens every month there is no stopping of this media juggernaut.

There are more than 8000 screens in the big cities in India and the trend is not only restricted to metros and mini-metros but tier II cities and small towns are also getting there share in the pie.

Currently the advertising spends on this format is miniscule, about less than 0.5% of total advertising spends but is expected to grow up to 5% by the end of 2010, which in terms of money would be 1500 Crs.

But what is it that differentiates digital OOH media from traditional outdoor? Well, the quick reaction would be:

· More attractive than tradition outdoor media – moving images, sound

· Able to reach non-traditional places such as – saloon, gyms, buses

· Engages the consumers with the use of web 2.0 technology

Everybody is keeping a close tab on the initial reactions of the consumers and trying to understand the efficacy of the medium. With so many players already in the market, increasing numbers of screens, deep researches on the contents and wide segmentation, it is clear that the media is rising, but in the celebration of rise of the media of the future, few questions which remains unanswered are:

· What is the basis of costing the media? Why flat rates?

· Why there are differences in the costing patterns across different media owners?

· And last but not the least, what are the tools for measuring the advertising effectiveness?