‘Targeting the SEC A guy is a nightmare’

Ishan Raina, MD and CEO, OOH Media, has been in the advertising and media business for over 25 years. After working with Lintas and Contract Advertising, in 1995, he became the founder CEO and JV partner of Euro RSCG Advertising Worldwide. From 1998 to 2006, he served as chairman and CEO of the group in India. Raina, currently the chairman of MPG India (Havas Media) and Connecturf, had turned entrepreneur a year ago to start OOH Media, a company funded by 3i and Chinese firm Focus Media. 

In a conversation with DNA Money’s Arcopol Chaudhuri, he shared the company’s growth story and also spoke about out-of-home television as a medium and the changing approach of advertiser’s towards this medium. Excerpts:

What makes a CEO of an advertising agency suddenly turn entrepreneur?
It had to happen sometime, right? At some point you want to start a phenomenon of your own. It’s a new media, there is potential, so I had to jump in. Out-of-home television is doing well and will certainly do better in the coming days. Trust me.

How do you differentiate yourself from Future TV, Digital Signage Networks and other players in the business?
Future TV is more of a last-mile converter. DSN has established itself at good locations like the CCDs and McDonalds in certain parts of the country. OOH Media operates screens, but we’re not only present at retail locations, but also at prime real estate properties such as offices and industrial parks. Where do you see us — in elevators, lobbies of corporate houses. And it’s not just a location-driven business. We’ve mapped out the time-line of our target group (TG) in a way that he is exposed to the messages of our medium.

And what is the up-market TG you’re talking about here?
SEC A (the top socio-economic class), to be precise, and permeating down to the SEC AB, who work in corporate houses. Let’s understand that there is a large chunk of the nation’s workforce whom we call the ‘TV dark’ audience. In simple words, they just don’t have the time to watch TV.

They buy so many newspapers, but how much of it do they read? They are pressed for time. Half the time they are texting somebody on their Blackberry or high-end mobile phones. The SEC A audience is a nightmare to target. But, I don’t put up screens so that they can watch TV in office.

How do you reach a high-flying executive or someone from a BPO?
The odds are that he may use the elevator at least four times a day. An average of 5-7 minutes is spent inside an elevator. And research says about five minutes are spent waiting for the elevator. So, OOH television is like a marriage of real estate and a new-age media vehicle. The 5 km radius of Gurgaon itself could mean about Rs 3,000 crore of revenues annually.

What is the content that is put up on these screens? Are tailor-made creatives being made for this medium?
It’s not plain advertising. China uses that format. Here, we have different forms - one is paid-for advertising, which are video clips and movie trailers that are content for the viewer. News clips are also a major part.

The advantage of this medium is unlike TV, you’re not competing with his time. You’re merely slipping in content in between the ads that he watches. But this changes - since in restaurants, you have to provide enough content since he hangs out there for about an hour.

What is the shift you’ve observed in the advertiser’s dependence on the medium?
I think the real shift is in attitudes. Earlier, it was a medium they experimented with. Today, they depend on it for targeting the elite audience. And it’s because all of us — advertisers, media planners, buyers, ad agencies — we can bloody well see the medium every day as we enter and exit our plush offices. So, we all feel the medium, we know how it works.

Sector-wise, if you see, financial clients are using it in a big way. Telecom is using it as a strategic medium. FMCG majors are using it as an add-on for SEC A. But I sometimes fear the FMCG approach to OOH media. They’re trained to think only ‘spots’.

Eventually, they’ll wish this medium went live so you can make changes with their ‘spots’ anytime of the day, which will not only create a headache for us, but also make the business unviable.

Their (media agencies, advertisers) faith in any medium is driven by measurement metrics, which isn’t present here...

See, every medium needs metrics to grow. Most media agencies hide under the measurement garb of TAM, RAM, IRS. But we (OOH Media) are present in public places. Take IT-parks such as Mindspace for example. You have about 4,000-odd people passing through the area almost daily.

More than measurement, I think the focus has to be on making sure that our screens are functioning. Today, some players in the business are acquiring 100-odd screens and calling themselves OOH TV players. If their screens don’t work, they are bringing a bad name to the medium. Even in our growth strategy, while we’re extending our reach to more cities, let’s realise our basic mission — the screens should work.

c_arcopol@dnaindia.net