By Vipin Agnihotri
You must have noticed that Mumbai has so many billboards and Delhi almost none. This is because the Supreme Court had banned billboard advertising in Delhi in 1997. However that rule may be overturned via the Supreme Court after a period of ten years. The Supreme Court is appointing a two-member committee to review the past decision and to submit a new draft regulatory code for allowing billboards in Delhi!
It is worth mentioning that billboards have since time immemorial been a snappy way to communicate the marketing concept to the consumer. In my opinion, thriving on this tool is the new concept of Out-of-home advertising, which contains not only billboards and hoardings but also buses, airports, malls and taxis.
If experts are to be believed, this industry in India has a staggering compounded annual growth rate of 14 per cent and there are number of reasons for this. The most important factor being that this medium has a capacity to target consumers across socio-economic classes- from a Merc to a bus traveller. In other words, one can capture all sorts of target audience that is not a possibility with any other media.
Taking this into account, there is hardly a surprise that Hutch, Tata Indicom, Airtel, GM, ICICI and many more have started using the out-of-home space with a special focus on outdoor advertising. Point to be noted here is that apart from Mumbai and Kolkata, Delhi is also emerging as a major hub for such advertising.
Both advertisers and agencies are using new technology and number of innovative advertising options in order to grab this opportunity. The emergence of mall culture and the erstwhile retail boom has also played a prominent part in this regard.
Suggested Reading:
