‘Let’s all work together to establish OOH as a medium of choice’

A theme like ‘Biting the Bullet for Indian OOH progress’ packs within it much significance and lot of connotations for the industry; and addressing it was none other than Pawan Bansal, Chairman of the Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA), along with Praveen Vadhera, CEO of IOAA, on Day 2 of OAC 2024 that was underway on July 26 and 27 at the Hilton Garden Inn, Manyata Business Park, Bangalore.   

Drawing on some very relevant and interesting analogies from Bollywood, Rap music and other entertaining examples, Pawan and Praveen managed to instantly resonate with the audience and drive home the importance of their message – the OOH industry needs to come together on a common platform like the IOAA in order to grow.   

Sounding the clarion call to write a new chapter in the Indian Out Of Home industry. Pawan threw up a question that came down to the crux of the theme: ‘Hum Aapke Hain Kaun?’ (‘what are we to you?’). With that he addressed the very important question of the role of the IOAA and its relevance to media owners. 

While highlighting one of the obvious goals of IOAA, which was to scale up business for all stakeholders in the industry, Pawan also shared his vision and objectives for IOAA. “The vision I had set for OOH was to establish OOH as a medium of choice, and reclaim its rightful place in the media ecosystem. One of the ways by which we would achieve this would be through adoption of technology, by establishing healthy business practices, by being inclusive, and being professional in every aspect of our delivery. That is when brands will embrace OOH as a medium of choice.” Further, reinforcing IOAA’s role with regard to media owners, he added, “We are here to protect your interests.” 

Pawan also addressed the much-discussed issue of measurability, and stressed on the critical importance of all stakeholders to work together in order for the industry to progress and for brands to accept OOH as a medium that delivers results. In the context of measurability, Praveen also took the audience through Roadstar, IOAA’s audience metrics platform, to be established as a common currency for OOH measurement in India.  

Pawan also pointed to the growing revenue potential for the OOH medium and the industry, and once again urged the media owners assembled to come forward and help drive some of the initiatives mooted by IOAA so as to enable collective growth.