What 2022 has in store for the Indian Out-of-Home and Experiential industry

• As we come closer to the end of 2021, we take a look back at a few learnings from the year, and talk to experts from different industries about what lies ahead.
• In today's feature, we bring you prominent voices from the OOH and Experiential industry who tell us about their expectations from 2022.

For years, the Indian Out-of-home (OOH) industry has depended on traditional way of measuring the success of its campaigns which has led to marketers spending less on the medium. With the advent of the digital medium and the marriage of technology, almost all mediums have become more accountable, easily measurable. OOH, however, has taken it time to embrace data and technology.

The industry has been long working on a measurement system that will help advertisers better understand the effectiveness of their campaigns and there is hope that in 2022, this system will be up and running, which will be that much-needed boost for the industry. Since the pandemic, OOH has suffered, and most experts feel this measurement system will help the medium get back in the game, and even help make it one of the most effective mediums.

Meanwhile, another medium which suffered massive losses due to the pandemic was experiential and live events. The lockdown ensured that people are stuck at their homes. It led to the cancellation of many events. While things were slowly starting to get back to normal at the end of 2020, things came to a complete standstill again, once the country was hit by the second wave in April-May this year. There was hope of things slowly limping towards normalcy with the Covid numbers going down but the spread of Omicron again has put a question mark on the way things progress next year.

To understand how things are expected to pan out for both the OOH and Experiential industry in 2022, we spoke to some prominent voices from both the industries and here are their predictions:

Noomi Mehta, Chairman & MD, Selvel One


Measurement to revolutionize Indian OOH
There is hope that 2022 will be a standout year for Indian OOH. The industry association has been working on a common currency of measurement and there is hope that we will be able to launch it in the next few months. Once that happens, OOH will not just become more accountable with effective measurement, we will be able to prove that it is perhaps one of the most effective mediums, owing to its reach and impact. While business has been slow, there is hope things will pick up in 2022. We will see the coming together of digital and technology that will help make OOH much more stronger than its current form.

Atul Shrivastava, CEO, Laqshya Media Group


The year of convergence of OOH and Digital
The cliché is more apt than ever before: 2022 will be one of the defining years for both OOH and Experiential media. Needless to add, this is apropos the challenges that were 2020 and 2021.

The application of technology and analytics will be the primary trend that we shall hope to see for both the verticals. However, important to point out that it will be the intelligent application of technology that will separate the men from the boys.

Convergence between OOH and digital media will make its presence felt in India – and help OOH garner a larger, a more significant share of marketing spends, and indeed a more serious share of the brand managers’ mindspace.

Experiential marketing must go/will go far beyond physicality and capitalise on the brilliant ideas and experiences that our agencies can conceive – and again receive the attention that it truly deserves.

Overall, we hope that India becomes more democratic in its marketing processes – look at wider audiences and increases her per capita advertising spend – which lags significantly behind the more developed markets.

Aman Nanda, Chief Strategy Officer, Times Innovative Media

Out of home to move Beyond just Brand Advertising

OOH advertising has been primarily used for Brand marketing campaigns. Originally, the focus of OOH was to drive high impact and enhance brand awareness. While it still has the potential to do that, we believe now OOH is powered enough to drive tactical brand objectives. Whether it means to target only students near colleges, or to target CXO’s in the morning drive time or to drive sales to the nearest store – out-of-home media is now evolved enough to deliver it. DOOH and PDOOH are growing faster than any other advertising format as a result we are able to offer pin-pointed campaigns – ranging from few hours to multi-years and deliver logic and rationale for ad placement through programmatic and planning tools. OOH also helps now, like no other media, to deliver online response through phones. This ability of OOH to amplify the online activity and drive offline sales is being embraced by brands and will help OOH grow multi-fold in near future.

Nandini Nayyar, Associate Vice President, Kinetic India

OOH has seen a lot of disruption, integration, upgradation, and use of contextually targeted campaigns in 2021. A media that has shown high level of resilience and managed to bounce back with the caliber of allowing high consumer interaction as mobility numbers seemed back in order post the pandemic slowdown from the months of August onwards. Organizations like Kinetic India worked towards heavy data ammunitions to back the medium across cities and important touchpoints saw a lot of revival. DOOH, most importantly programmatic way of functioning in particular was in vogue across airports& mall. Cinema as a touch point saw a huge boom with big titles releasing across movie theatres. Clients who were unlikely to advertise through OOH formats in the pre-Covid times reflected a sudden interest in the data backed OOH formats and with Digital, we saw brands advertising through OOH as second preferred medium for a continuous reminder.
2022 will also have its own trend in the OOH, where brands will be mindful of the Omicron and its effects and spends will again be partially dependent on the mobility numbers and seasonality across the cities for various categories. The OOH agencies will need to be cognizant of the situation, brand requirements, act flexible, be spontaneous with their bespoke data driven approach & close on long term deals for better efficiencies across relevant touchpoints. Agencies will also need to move towards transitioning and educating their clients towards investing programmatically on digital OOH formats for the desired ROI.

Roshan Abbas, MD, Geometry Encompass


Time for brands to build live experiences

In a world of revenge travel and revenge shopping there will be a surge of live experiences. Tickets to concerts are selling out in minutes. NH7 Weekender early bird, India Bike Week, spoken all are returning slowly.

It’s time for brands to take advantage and build live experiences. To keep these safe will be paramount so vaccine passes and apps are a must. We have relegated the virtual to the essential. So most knowledge-based events and experiences will have hybrid components to satisfy the remote audience. This will also lead to a surge of all on ground events having a broadcast component.

Sanjoy K Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts


Hybrid events will continue to dominate

2022 will be dependent on the world opening up and dealing with new variants of Covid -19. Even as digital fatigue abounds and people long for on ground events, celebrations and conferences, there is wish to return to the old `normal’. This is unlikely to play out, hybrid events will continue to dominate with organizers trying to improve the virtual experience and convert these from cookie cutter formats to more endearing and immersive programs. Tech continues to power forward looking to create more opportunities to control our motivations and experiences by ensuring flawless online delivery.

Dalveer Singh, Head of Experiential Marketing - APAC, GroupM Dialogue Factory


2022 the year of taking ‘Store to the Door’

The experiential marketing space has been fast changing in the last 5 years and more so in the last couple of months and seems will continue to disrupt. The last two years have been a rollercoaster ride for this highly specialized practice.

The biggest trend that we see unfolding in 2022 in this space will be to take the store experience to the door of the consumers across geographies including metros, mini metros, semi-urban & rural cities. The store experiences could be in the form of any of these:

AVATARS – Kirana store, General store, modern trade outlet, Pharmacy, Showroom, Mall or Multiplex etc.

It will be all about bringing the brand and brand experiences closer to where the consumer lives. The store-to-door experience must marry the best of both physical and digital brand assets, thus creating strong hybrid experiences. All this needs to have a creative spin that surprises, entertains and drives both brand equity as well as brand sales.

C ya @ the door!