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<ul><li>The Out-of-home industry has been severely impacted by the pandemic with the months of April, May and June seeing almost zero business.</li><li>However, with the country slowly opening up, things are starting to move and a lot of hope also rests on the festive season.</li><li>We talk to experts who tell us what the rest of the year looks like and why this is a good time for advertisers to start spending on OOH.</li></ul>The lockdown impacted most industries across the globe. However, one industry that had to bear the maximum brunt in the advertising world was the Out-of-home (OOH) segment. Considering people were stuck at their homes, OOH advertising had come to a complete standstill. The people who ventured out were greeted with empty hoardings, or hoardings that spoke about the coronavirus and the precautions one can take to prevent it from spreading. However, with the festive season round the corner, is there a chance of some growth coming back to OOH? Experts feel there are a lot of factors that will impact the growth. It is a fact that the number of Covid-19 cases are still on the rise in the country. So how the festive season turns out to be will also be dependent on where we stand in terms of the pandemic in the next month. Consumer sentiments will turn once things start getting better and they feel the confidence of going out again. However, since the industry saw almost a washout during the weeks of the strict lockdown, even if the festive season is around 40-50% of what it is every year, we are still some time away from things getting back to normal. According to a recent report by Pitch-Madison, overall, OOH advertising in India declined by 55% in the first half of the year and closed at Rs 760 crore. ‘On account of this, OOH’s share of total AdEx, which has always been above 5%, has come down to 4% in H1’20,’ stated the report. The story so far Owing to people being stuck at home, sectors like OOH and experiential were impacted badly. People weren’t going out, so there was no point in advertising. “The months between April to June were a complete washout for the OOH business. However, with the festive season ahead of us, we are having conversations with advertisers. When it comes to the festive season, the most important thing is the positioning of the dates. Luckily this year, Mahalaya (Day 0 of Durge Puja) is happening at the end of September, which is a full month before the Puja actually starts. So that gives us some breathing space,” said <keyword id="939652" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Noomi-Mehta">Noomi Mehta</keyword>, Chairman and MD, <keyword id="3910022" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="selvel">Selvel</keyword> One. He shares that compared to last year, Selvel might see revival of anywhere between 25-40% during the festive weeks. “Even a 25-40% revival is a big deal because we have been at 0,” he added. He said that the fact that a lot of campaigns have been pending for the past 6 months will ensure that advertisers slowly start launching them. For <keyword id="2015316" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Times-OOH">Times OOH</keyword>, that has a strong presence in transit media (one of the worst impacted segments), recovery has been slow. While airports have opened up, the footfall is still only picking up, advertisers are still wary. “While a lot of advertisers are coming back slowly because brands advertising at airports are long-term advertisers, a lot of them have been asking for discounts and price reductions due to low traffic,” shared <keyword id="6814809" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aman-Nanda">Aman Nanda</keyword>, Chief Strategy Officer, Times OOH. If traffic is down by 70%, brands are looking for a 70% cut on the rate-card. “And that has been one of the major challenges for us,” added Nanda. However, according to <keyword id="2967121" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dipankar-Sanyal">Dipankar Sanyal</keyword>, CEO, Platinum OOH, things are slowly starting to move in the right direction. “As the unlocking is happening in phases, more and more people can now be seen on the streets across cities in India. The mobility reports also shows that we are 60% of pre-Covid levels of people on all roads. The number of advertisers in OOH is also increasing,” he said. A few facts While <keyword id="6366797" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Delhi-Metro">Delhi Metro</keyword> started operating from this week, airports have been open for a while now. The Delhi Metro ferried around 15,000 on Day 1 and on Day 2, the number had swelled to 8000 people taking the yellow line in the morning. Last week civil aviation minister Hardeep Puri said that as the centre had allowed flight capacities to be increased to 60%, domestic flight operations were picking up. As of September 6, total number of footfall at airports has been 2,85,577 (data from the Ministry of Civil Aviation). With this, the overall confidence of passengers as well as advertisers is growing steadily. A recent GVK-led'Restart Feedback’ Survey for Mumbai Airport reveals that 99.6% passengers find air travel to be the most reliable mode of transport. Moreover, 54.7% passengers are flying primarily for business purposes. The Survey displays a change in the purpose of travel for passengers, with business travel gaining momentum at the Mumbai airport. With airport safety measures, passengers are ready to fly even twice a month. Passenger satisfaction with the safety measures at the airport inspires confidence to travel by air more than once a month. Wooing advertisers back to OOH Over the past few months, hoardings across most cities have either been empty, or being carrying coronavirus advisory. However, with unlock being done across the country, people are coming out and this is a good time to grab people’s eyeballs. So how is it that OOH media owners and agencies are talking to advertisers about the importance of OOH and bringing them back to the medium? “At <keyword id="2712628" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Posterscope">Posterscope</keyword>, we have always maintained that OOH is a powerful medium that adds value to any communication plan. The recent study done by Posterscope along with its partners establish strong indicators that OOH adds a significant boost to campaigns when used in the right context and with relevant content. While many of our advertisers have seen the value of this others are beginning to warm up to this fact as well,” shared <keyword id="3151002" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Fabian-Cowan">Fabian Cowan</keyword>, Country Head, Posterscope India. On how OOH plays an important role in delivering high-impact messages, <keyword id="207494" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amarjeet-Singh">Amarjeet Singh</keyword>, Chief Operating Officer, Laqshya Solutions said, “OOH propels the concept of Zero Touch media for the viewers and with traffic back on road, it is gaining the preference with each passing day. Strategic planning enables OOH to deliver the message and create an impact which is remembered for a long time. Good creatives with a strong OOH-cum-digital plan willhave great outcomes. In most cities, traffic is at least 70% of normal, while in cities like Delhi, it is estimated to be at 88%, based on telecom data. In the present circumstances hyper-local content has garnered great importance. OOH is best suited for hyper-local content. OOH as a medium allows the advertiser brand to customize campaigns locally to deliver messages relevant to that area.” Having said that, Mehta expressed his disappointment at brands not doing enough on OOH in the month of August. “Brands have lost a great opportunity to really drive a message home in the month of July and August when traffic was gradually increasing on Indian roads. This was the time when brands would have got the space at really low rates and would have got a great spread across the city. Even if it would have reached half the normal number of people, they would get double the bang for their bucks because there nobody else was advertising despite people being out and about. It had the potential of giving their communication a massive recall value, at a much lower cost.” Agreeing, Nanda said that this could have been a time when brands came up with campaigns to build a stronger connect with their consumers. “We have written several papers on how during a slowdown consumers look for some reinforcement and reassurance from brands. And communications like this helps them in brand building. Moreover, everybody knows that OOH is the nearest to the point of sale. You can really pin point which markets and cities are open. So if you really plan your campaigns well, OOH works very well in doing targeted campaigns to help sale of your products in particular areas,” explained Nanda. What the industry is doing as a whole to minimize the impact? Considering the impact on the medium so far, there will need to be a proper recovery plan in place. However, is the OOH industry as a whole doing something to minimize the impact? Sanyal said, “It goes without saying that the industry is doing everything possible across board to make sure advertisers are back in our media. I see the level of engagement that is happening at every level is very reassuring. So if you look at traditional media it was initially wooing through sweetened deals followed by hard to data to give reassurance to the advertisers of the increasing footfalls. In activation which is worst hit sector in outdoor has been doing stores on wheels and RWA engagements. The emergence of e-meeting platforms and CSR activities like distribution of face masks, sanitisers etc have kept the industry busy in the event sector. In retail we have seen how the signage game is changing with the new Covid norms of social distancing, sanitisation and minimal contact while transacting.DOOH is slowly gaining prominence as the malls and airports come back to life. So every section of OOH industry is adapting to the new norms and coming up with solutions for the advertisers.” “ The industry is indeed fighting back with several strategies including focus on Tier 2/3 markets, package rates (city specific as well as multi cities), use of Audience Measurement Tools (Laqsha Media has the most advanced metric platform in India) and of course some degree of price rationalization. The recent licensee fee waiver by various Corporations &amp; government bodies has greatly helped OOH owners to offer discounts. Agencies are also working on giving better ROI to clients for their OOH campaigns,” shared Singh. On what his advice for brands is, Mehta said, “I would ask them to take off their blinders. OOH combined with a bit of social media has the potential to make your brand viral. Brands should use this opportunity.”

Why this is a good time for advertisers to start spending on OOH

<ul><li>In this new year, we want to crystal gaze into what the year has in store for the industry.</li><li>In today's feature, we talk to experts from the out-of-home industry who give us a sense of what one should expect from the <keyword id="2014281" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="OOH">OOH</keyword> industry in 2021.</li></ul>The Covid-19 induced lockdown last year hit the out-of-home industry hard. With people not venturing out for weeks, billboards across the country were left empty. April, May and June almost witnessed zero business. However, as the country started opening up, advertisers started coming back to the medium, slowly but steadily. The festive season, while holding a lot of expectations, did not see the kind of enthusiasm from advertisers as was expected. Everyone was in the ‘let’s-wait-and-watch’ phase, with brands being cautious of spending too much on advertising. However, now despite the virus still being around, people are out and about. And with vaccines soon expected to hit the markets, things will only look up from here. And with increasing mobility with each passing day, one can only hope for things to keep improving. While we might still be some time away from a complete recovery, the process has already started. Segments like OTT, real estate and FMCG have always been big spenders on the medium and with people slowly resuming travel, more and more advertisers are coming back too. It is also expected that 2021 could finally see the boost that Digital OOH has been waiting for in India. We reached out to experts from the OOH ecosystem to understand their expectations from 2021 and here’ s what they had to say. <keyword id="939652" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Noomi-Mehta">Noomi Mehta</keyword>, Chairman &amp; MD, <keyword id="3910022" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="selvel">Selvel</keyword> One <div type="image" title="Noomi-Mehta" msid="80170862" hostid="261"></div> 2021 will be a defining year because the classic form of OOH will not rebound to the extent that we hope it to. I don’t think the normal hoardings across the country are going to be filled, they won’t get the level of occupancy we are looking for. The shift towards digital is extremely clear to me now. Clients are moving their monies to digital not because of any particular reason but because it is one medium that gives them the most accountability where it is possible to measure and trace the actual performance vis-à-vis the money spent. The same is going to happen to outdoor, which is why the recent initiatives we’re taking, to establish a common currency of measurement, is going to be of paramount importance as we move ahead and will lead the way forward. If we’re able to achieve this by the second half of the year, outdoor as a medium will take off definitely. <keyword id="2406965" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Atul-Shrivastava">Atul Shrivastava</keyword>, CEO, <keyword id="2911687" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Laqshya-Media-Group">Laqshya Media Group</keyword> <div type="image" title="Atul Shrivastava - Group CEO - Laqshya Media Group" msid="80170929" hostid="261"></div> The OTT platforms have seen a huge spike in users over the last several months. As the pandemic is slowing down in India, these platforms will invest in both content and the advertising of the content to keep the growth rates up. As per the available data, the unprecedented rise in subscribers in the first half of the year is gradually slowing down. With 60-70% growth witnessed around May, figures for monthly subscriber rise have now reached around 20%. The subscription war is imminent and the platforms must use smart advertising to make their respective brands stronger. The unique suitability of OOH to the digital platforms business has received a lot of business and academic attention – and we expect a lot of the ‘conventional' brands to learn from the experience of OTT platforms. It is because of this compatibility between OTT and OOH that we dominated the promotion of shows on OTT Platforms over the last couple of years. Post the lockdown, OOH came back with a bang. Most visible campaigns were launched by ZEE5 and a few others. Important to note is that India's homegrown platforms, too, have emerged as strong players in OTT category and as leaders in the smart use of OOH media. As per the recent WARC Report, OOH is globally forecast to be the second-fastest growing medium in 2021, with ad spend rising by a fifth (20.2%). We expect this rally to happen in India as well. <keyword id="6814809" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Aman-Nanda">Aman Nanda</keyword>, Chief Strategy Officer, <keyword id="2015316" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Times-OOH">Times OOH</keyword> <div type="image" title="Aman Nanda" msid="80171052" hostid="261"></div> The year 2020 has reaffirmed our faith in the power and impact of OOH media to drive audience sentiment at scale. New categories such as OTT entertainment, online education and hygiene products emerged as the biggest spenders, and OOH spends have shifted from business districts to residential areas, as people are spending more time around their own neighborhoods. The pandemic has also sprung fledgeling remote client relationships, and our team has adapted to remotely working to deliver the best OOH solutions to our esteemed clients across India. Ajay Mehta, Founder and MD, Interactive Television (iTV) and MD, Kinetic India <div type="image" title="Ajay Mehta, Managing Director of Cinema (ITV) and OOH (Kinetic)" msid="80171113" hostid="261"></div> 2021 will be a watershed year for the OOH Industry. From the lows experienced by the industry amidst the lockdown, the industry will start rising aggressively and will clock an extremely high growth rate. This will be on the back of multiple factors including normalising of people <keyword id="1058872" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="out-of-home">out of home</keyword>, to new touchpoints to demand from OOH heavy categories like Auto and OOH. While people interpret the Out of Home Industry as a medium that lacks data points and measurement, the fact is that some of us from the Industry have used the time during the pandemic to create several tools and initiatives which use multiple data points to enable advertisers to plan, execute and measure their investments based on deep insights. 2020 has just been the start of this and I see this trend sustaining and gaining traction in 2021. This year will also see new touchpoints coming into the limelight and programmatic and Digital Out of Home will drive this. Lastly OOH is an impact medium and to achieve the same, we see advertisers demanding more innovative solutions to achieve the same. Fabian Trevor Cowan, Country Head, Posterscope India <div type="image" title="Fabian Cowan Picture" msid="80171199" hostid="261"></div> Every season has its lipstick trend and just because your perfect color is a pinky beige, that doesn’t mean you can’t wear deep burgundy - Bobby Brown This quote pretty much supports my take on the OOH trends for 2021. For the last 230 plus years of its supposed official existence, the OOH medium has witnessed many trends but has always maintained and reinforced its core survival traits of high visibility, high impact and high contextual capabilities. This will continue to be its core growth areas in the future as well. 5 trends that will only help reinforce these attributes will be ‘increased bandwidth speeds’ on the back of the 5G possibility, which will aid DOOH solutions. Usage and inclusions of ‘Diversified data-sets’ will become the norm rather than an exception in planning for OOH. ‘Automated’ platforms’ will be the natural progression for DOOH networks. ‘Tech collaborations’ will come to the fore to enhance the DOOH solutions, making them more realistic and impactful and lastly ‘OOH with a purpose’ will be the underlying premise for all brand communications in 2021 given that a post-pandemic world will seek more meaningful communications from brands.

OOH: What 2021 has in store for the outdoor industry

<ul><li>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.</li><li>In today's feature, we bring you prominent voices from the <keyword id="2014281" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="ooh" source="Orion">OOH</keyword> and <keyword id="1784761" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="experiential" source="Orion">Experiential</keyword> industry who tell us about their expectations from 2022.</li></ul>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: <keyword id="939652" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="noomi-mehta" source="Orion">Noomi Mehta</keyword>, Chairman &amp; MD, Selvel One <div type="image" title="Noomi." msid="88546058" hostid="261"></div> 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. <keyword id="2406965" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="atul-shrivastava" source="Orion">Atul Shrivastava</keyword>, CEO, Laqshya Media Group <div type="image" title="atul-main-image" msid="88546322" hostid="261"></div> 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 <keyword id="35666" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="advertising" source="Orion">advertising</keyword> spend – which lags significantly behind the more developed markets. Aman Nanda, Chief Strategy Officer, Times Innovative Media <div type="image" title="Image." msid="88546370" hostid="261"></div> 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, <keyword id="2091244" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="kinetic-india" source="Orion">Kinetic India</keyword> <div type="image" title="nandini" msid="88547222" hostid="261"></div> 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&amp; 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 &amp; 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. <keyword id="52304" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="roshan-abbas" source="Orion">Roshan Abbas</keyword>, MD, Geometry Encompass <div type="image" title="Roshan Abbas, President, EEMA (1)" msid="88546575" hostid="261"></div> 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 <div type="image" title="Sanjoy K Roy - MD Teamwork Arts @ JLF 2015 Curtain Raiser (3)" msid="88549459" hostid="261"></div> 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. <keyword id="1586079" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="dalveer-singh" source="Orion">Dalveer Singh</keyword>, Head of Experiential Marketing - APAC, GroupM Dialogue Factory <div type="image" title="Dalveer Singh, , Head of Experiential Marketing- APAC, Dialogue Factory (1)" msid="88546762" hostid="261"></div> 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 &amp; 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!

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

<ul><li>While Durga Puja/Navratri is here, this year, the festivites are subdued.</li><li>Brands are therefore excercising caution in where and how much they spend in the next few days.</li><li>However, things are gradually improving and there are signs of recovery, experts tell us.</li></ul><keyword id="6357908" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="durga-puja">Durga Puja</keyword> or <keyword id="48284" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="navratri">Navratri</keyword> is one of the biggest festivals in India and every year the festival is marked by marketers pouring in big monies during the nine days of festivity. Actually the festival is so big in states like West Bengal that streets of cities like Kolkata usually become one big advertising canvas. However, things are different this year. With coronavirus still going nowhere, people are cautious. While every year, the streets become adorned by ads and hoardings from brands from all kinds of industries, because this is the best way to grab people’s attentions, this year, even during the festival, advertisers have been cautious. For the ad and marketing industry which saw a huge dip in investments during the first few months of the lockdown, a lot of hope had been resting on the festive season. However, this year there will hardly be a celebration. Just yesterday, the Calcutta High Court also directed all Durga puja pandals in the state to be turned into 'no-entry zones'. Many pandals in the city are barring physical entry of devotees and making the entire experience virtual. Even in other cities, people are planning to give the festivities a skip. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his address to the nation advised people to exercise caution while going out during the festival. So what does this mean for advertisers? Will they get a bang out of their buck if they advertiser this year? Explaining how things are going to be different this year, <keyword id="3364704" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sujata-Dwibedy">Sujata Dwibedy</keyword>, Group Trading Director, Amplifi India, dentsu international said, “Durga Puja in the east and Navratri in the west, are two of the grandest of all festivals, The festival marks the start of the auspicious period. Dussehra is followed by Kali Puja/Diwali/Laxmi Puja and Bhai Dooj. People shop a lot. The purchase of household durables, cars, bikes, home renovations, capital expenditures in businesses are seen in this period. A lot of business-led decisions are also made around this time. However, this year would be different as people would not step out like before, but they would be hooked on to the media to get a glimpse of the Goddess. So, the media/channel who can give them the best experience would score over the others.” Every year, categories like FMCG, apparel, auto, e-commerce and consumer durables become the biggest spenders during the festive season. But have these brands come ahead and advertised this year? <keyword id="8330648" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sidharth-Parashar">Sidharth Parashar</keyword>, President – Investments and Pricing, GroupM India said, “With demand picking up in Aug-Sep, key categories like Ecommerce, FMCG, Telecom, Durables, Auto and certain segments within BFSI are expected see increased ad spends this festive season. FMCG saw recovery in Jul-Sep quarter, driven by essentials like health-hygiene products and immunity boosting food products. Brands in these categories coupled with discretionary like skin &amp; personal care products are likely to see an uptick in consumer spending and therefore in ad spending too. Consumer durables and Retail are expected to benefit from the govt.’s LTC cash voucher and festival advance schemes, which would lead to increased spending from government employees on products like apparels, laptops, smart phones, consumer durables, home appliances, fitness, jewellery, beauty &amp; personal care during this festive. For Ecommerce sector, RedSeer estimates this festive to surpass a GMV of U$D 7Bn. driven by a surge in shoppers from Tier-II towns, considerable discounts available and financing options being easily accessible to consumers. Large players like Amazon and Flipkart are scaling up their supply chain vendors, fulfillment centres and higher manpower for delivery, in order to meet surge in demand and are spending heavily on TV, digital &amp; Print.” While people might give pandal-hopping a skip this year, they have also started spending money. At this point, people are on the lookout for a change, for something positive and this has led to a visible shift in consumer sentiments in the past few months, Dwivedy added, “We are seeing that market sentiments have improved over the past few months. A surge in online purchases has been witnessed through the various platforms. Indian consumers have started embracing the new normal, and consumption of products is back. There are multiple new categories of products, new convenience food products, health, hygiene-related – all have been accepted and are being tried out. In the last few days, the malls have also opened with new offerings from the shops. Many are offering home delivery, video selections and are even ready to send people home with multiple samples for trials. Home delivery of groceries, foods and other products is preferred. Implying that the emotions have revived, the consumption has begun, however, the mode of consumption is new.” This positive sentiment has led to a month-on-month increase in spends since July across categories. “TV has been almost at the same levels as the previous year. Print, on the other hand, is kind of catching up but it will still take some more time in top metros. Nevertheless, Tier II towns are tracking better. Radio has also picked up. OOH and Cinema that have been worst hit this year should see some relief in this quarter,” she explained. While Television has steadily been seeing an increase in ad spends over the past few months, mediums like Radio and OOH that had suffered a lot during the lockdown are hoping to see some recovery. These are both mediums that see a lot of spends during the festive season in normal years. So how are things this year? Abraham Thomas, CEO, Reliance Broadcast Network Limited said, “The festive season is considered the 5th quarter in India, an auspicious time, for businesses across industries, that contributes 40-45% of sales. Marketers certainly leverage this opportunity with ad volumes showcasing a significant surge. Clearly the most trusted and credible media, this lockdown has helped radio being reimagined amongst the audiences with the overall listenership of medium growing by 30%. The surge in listenership across different TG’s have driven ad volumes across Males, Females, the young and older targeted brands. We have witnessed a rise of 24% in Ad Volumes in week 33 with consistent growth in Ad volume from Aug’20 where average Ad volume surged by 4.8 times as compared to April. With the staggered unlocking of the economy, Radio with its ‘mass local reach’, trusted influencers and digital amplification have witnessed a sharp recovery with certain categories booming more than the others.” However, things aren’t all that great in the outdoor medium and Noomi Mehta, Chairman &amp; MD, Selvel One paints a not-so-rosy picture. He said, “Right now we are at 50% in terms of business when compared to a normal year, and if you compare puja-to-puja, we would be at less than 40% this year. It is true that people are venturing out now and there is an opportunity for brands but they are very cautious.” Every year, especially during Navratri/Durga Puja, brands from segments like FMCG, consumer durables etc go all out and make a lot of noise. “But this year, only those forced to advertise are advertising. For instance, auto brands that are launching new offerings are advertising and currently they are out top advertisers. Every year, we see financial institutes, paint companies, e-commerce platforms and apparel brands also invest in festive but that hasn’t happened this year,” he shared. Despite the fact that brands are cautious in spending, data points towards many cities almost coming to a state of normalcy. Shared <keyword id="2406965" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Atul-Shrivastava">Atul Shrivastava</keyword>, CEO, <keyword id="2911687" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Laqshya-Media-Group">Laqshya Media Group</keyword>, “As far as traffic on the roads is concerned, per data generated through SHARP, Laqshya’s traffic metrics platform, traffic in Kolkata is currently 89-92% of normal times and it is increasing every day. Long traffic jams are also back. So, we see that situation is coming back to normal, aided by the festive season.” However, Shrivastava had something positive to share. He pointed towards signs of recovery, even in terms of ad spends. “Even in the current situation, we are seeing brands in the jewellery, textiles, retail, garments, footwear and the automobile sectors spending their pent-up OOH budgets. FMCG brands are also advertising in OOH media, especially for sanitizing products. OTT platforms and entertainment channels are also investing in OOH media to promote new shows and programs. Hence, even if we do not see 100% spend by clients as compared to last year, current spends are around 60-65%.” On what the rest of the year will look like, Arnab Samanta, Head of Marketing, Graphixstory said, “With the nation gradually ‘unlocking’ itself and with IPL happening around the festive season, the markets are much positive of a revival in the second half of the year. Brands will be spending 1.5 times digitally more than the usual plan of action. The advertising spend will be increased, thoughtful engaging ad campaigns and tech innovations like augmented reality will be introduced to create massive engagement with the target audience. The higher ad spends for various brands will be distributed on a different mix of categories and channels compared to last year, depending on consumer trends and shopping pattern. Digital businesses will now make the way for a sharper trajectory.” While things have still not picked up as much as the ad industry had hoped, the number of new coronavirus infections dropped below 50,000 for the first time in nearly three months in India yesterday. So here’s hoping that things will keep getting better gradually and we will have a better and safer Diwali, one that also brings relief to the industry.

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