For the longest time, out-of-home advertising has been a go-to for brands to target customers. To further explore the role played by the medium, exchange4media on Wednesday hosted NEONS OOH conference. Day 1 of the conference saw Shubhranshu Singh, Vice-President, Marketing, Domestic & IB, Commercial Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors, talk about the new ways in which the industry is looking at OOH and why it is so important.

In a session titled, ‘From Innovation to Actualization: Unravelling Exciting New Practices in OOH’, Singh took to real-life stories and anecdotes to explain the importance and impact of OOH advertising.

Using an analogy of flowers and pollination, Singh explained how the grandness of OOH is magical. “I think corporate life and human society in general is very similar to a beehive. And I think pollinating flowers is the representation of what is attractive in advertising.”

Singh also spoke about how big hoardings and billboards make a customer think that the brand is making an effort and their product must be worthy of it. “Once they are soaked in the idea that this is a brand worthy of respect, that it must be a big deal to them, which is why they are putting up hoardings everywhere, or it is a big deal to them, which is why I see the television ad reflected in print and then I see the print ad in a mutant way upon an outdoor holding. This signals to them that you are serious contenders, that it is worthy of respect & trust and trust building can happen only with largeness.”

Singh also says that he doesn’t see OOH and advertising as divorced. He believes that the messaging has to be led by one and elaborated in a myriad number of ways through the other means. He also spoke about how to grab attention from truck drivers and people from the logistics space, whom the company is trying to target. The easiest way to do that is through OOH boards and advertising, said Singh.

At the end, he explained why it is important to have data and creative OOH techniques work together. “I have great respect for data but I think we must also be mindful of how to lift the brand to greater and greater heights. And in that, there has to be a conspiracy of collaboration. I would say conspiracy between the right brain and the left brain, between the creatives and the analysts, between the digital voters and the traditional media voters. If we do that, we will be in a better place as an industry, as universal brands, and certainly out of home will grow by leaps and bounds in this country.”

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