On the second day of Goafest 2025, Ajay Kakar, head - corporate branding, Adani Group; Dipankar Sanyal, CEO, Platinum Communications and Madison Retail Paradigm; Promita Saha, vice president, Karukrit Advertising; Sandeep Bommireddi, managing director, Adonmo; and Shekhar Narayanaswami, CEO, Times Innovative Media; discussed the problems in the OOH industry, how it differs from the digital  medium, and more. 

The session, ‘The last unskippable medium’, was moderated by Praveen K Vadhera, CEO, IOAA. 

Kakar kicked off the conversation by highlighting the problems of the OOH industry. 

He said, “Our industry is all about content, conversations and experiences. Today the problem is we think of ourselves as outdoors, hoardings and sites. We do not think of ourselves as out-of-home (OOH). You are less at home than outside, so you are out of home. Which other medium can catch a person as effectively as a full screen, all-time on, with no distraction? If we change our definition, the whole paradigm changes. Experience is out of home. Look at brands like Heineken, and Red Bull, their brands are built on experiences, and those experiences are out of home. The problem with the mainline advertising is going by the medium and not the customer. ”

On the other hand, Narayanaswami stressed how OOH stands out from digital media. “Every other media format can be consumed inside your house. For OOH, you need to step out of your house. The sky is the canvas and one can chart their territory that way. Digital is a new phenomenon. In outdoor advertising, the sheer physicality of sites outside cuts through the digital fatigue. It cuts away from swipes and it is something that’s there, which you cannot ignore. From that perspective, the formats are very different,” he said. 

With the rapid digitisation happening in the world, Bommireddi underlined the importance of putting the audience first. 

He stated, “There is a digitalisation of every media happening. There is an opportunity for every single vertical to be enhanced with digital. As for mediums, it should not be about fitting into a puzzle, but rather an audience selling. It’s more about the narrative of who your audience is and whether you can make sense for them or not.”

Building on the above viewpoint, Sanyal noted, “With RoadStar coming into the frame, life has become much easier. We are able to tell impressions, reach and frequency. In an industry which is bereft of data, one doesn’t know how much money to put where and what is to be done.”

Lending an agency perspective to the conversation, Saha focussed on how agencies should be given full insights to create effective, tailored campaigns.

She voiced, “If there is a product, one has the entire OOH canvas to tell their story. The problem is that that brief and consumer insight usually does not reach the OOH agency. It lies with the brand team and the creative agency. When we buy media, we say square feet, 80 x 40, or foot over bridge. It doesn’t work like that. One has a canvas but before that, there’s a consumer. One has a category and an insight. They have to tell their OOH agency that this is the piece of communication that we want to land on their OOH canvasses. And then let the agency decide now whether 10,000 square feet will become 2,000 square feet.”

She further added that OOH ads need original, audience-focused ideas. “We have to stop adapting another creative for OOH. An OOH creative cannot just be an adaptation of their print ad. One needs to make a special creative for OOH for the story to be consumed just as they are consuming digitally. If one wants to hyper-personalise their campaign for a particular state or district, they have OOH,” she asserted.