Hoardings - Giant Among Outdoors, India

HOARDINGS - GIANT AMONG OUTDOORS

Regardless of size or orientation, hoardings or billboards can lay claim to grasping the maximum amount of attention. To the layman, hoardings are synonymous with outdoor advertising. Since the layman is the one whose attention is being sought to be captured by advertising, his perception is to be treated like gospel! And so hoardings reign in the outdoors, the indisputable leaders.

Outdoor advertising is a constantly evolving medium of communication. In fact, the entire concept has changed in recent times to Out-Of-Home advertising. This can be defined as signs that promote a business outside premises. It encompasses advertising not just on hoardings but in other places that get high pedestrian or vehicular traffic. Thus it includes, among others, bus shelters, transit (bus exteriors, commuter rail cards, station platforms, underground shelters), street furniture (such as newsstands and benches), airports, malls, spectaculars and painted walls. The increasing importance being given to OOH is largely due to the fact that people today are less home-bound than earlier, or rather, more people nowadays go out of doors to earn a living than they used to. Hence the race to catch their attention out of doors as much or more than within the four walls of their home. Also, better tools like longer-lasting billboard substrates, large-format, high-speed digital technology, and creative use of 3-D, fibre optics and other spectacular effects on billboards, have greatly increased the scope of and interest in outdoor advertising.
Outdoor advertising today encompasses a whole gamut of vehicles, but hoardings remain unassailably number one, says Mr Kaushik Chakravorty, General Manager, Primesite, the independent outdoor advertising section of Mudra Communications (P) Ltd. Primesite, with headquarters in Mumbai, is India's first - and with 18 branches across the country, the largest - company in the integrated Out-of-Home (OOH) Communications space. With proven expertise in the classic outdoor medium it also has vast capabilities in retail merchandising and visual workplace merchandising. The company has an in-house design cell comprising of specialists in various fields, and as such offers complete and holistic solutions for out-of-home communications. The company recently unveiled 'Proactive Suite' - India's first Integrated Out-of-Home Solutions package - a range of new solution frameworks ranging from traditional outdoors to the more current B2C solutions.
HOARDINGS -- LARGER THAN LIFE
Hoardings, or billboards, outdistance all other advertising tools in terms of sheer visibility. Available in the largest outdoor formats as they are, billboards can range in size from 14'H x 48'W to the small four-sheet 3'4" x 5', with all the 8-, 16-, 30-, and 40-sheeters in between! The first, the most common one on highways and main arterial roads, especially have a huge impact in the outdoor marketplace. Hoardings command high-density consumer exposure as they target vehicular traffic. Their ability to take on customisation only increases their utility. A case in context is the recent launch of Timesgroup's glamour and entertainment channel, Zoom. The persuasive hoardings with the sheer white background, contrasting red and black graphics and the teasing tagline, were all over Mumbai. What was interesting was that the advertisement itself did not need much customisation although the billboards ranged in size and format from the traditional 10 x 10 to horizontal bus shelters to vertical building hoardings.
HOARDINGS -- EFFECTIVE REMINDERS
Hoardings are primarily used as reminders as, being stationary, they have the advantage of giving the product repeated exposure to the target audience. Although television commercials reach a much wider audience it is the hoarding that keeps reminding the consumer of the product or service, as Rajeev Raja, Executive Creative Director, Bates India, maintains. A very successful ad campaign done recently by Bates for Tata AIG Life Insurance included television commercials ably backed by press ads and billboards. The press ads formed a series with interesting and catchy body copy like 'You see a mischievous child, we see a future yoga expert' supporting the statement 'Life inspires us to think ahead, which is why our insurance solutions are one step ahead'. There was a series of hoardings too, in keeping with the press ads. The ad's tagline 'A new look at life' has been so successful as to prompt the company to issue a directive to employees, agents, actuaries, etc that they look at and project the company image and products with a new perspective, new being the operational word. The advertisement is one of the few where monitoring effectiveness has been easy and quick results have been seen. Brand awareness and recognition have increased exponentially post advertisement.
FLEX IS IN
The material in vogue now for use in hoardings is a translucent flexible substrate, commonly called `flex'. Flex, or flexible-face, was developed as an alternative to rigid-faced substrates like acrylic, plastic and polycarbonates. Flex takes on solvent-based printing very well. This is different from vinyl, says Mr Chakravorty, though laymen generally use that term for it. Flexible-face materials generally have polyvinylchloride (PVC) surfaces that attach to a scrim of fabric like woven polyester or nylon. The surface can be created either by casting or by extruding the fabric using a heat process that binds the vinyl and the scrim. During the extrusion process, plasticizers are added to make the rigid vinyl malleable.
Flex is good for both outdoor and indoor use - for light boxes, exhibits, trade show displays, and especially for billboards. Flex comes in a variety of thicknesses, tear-strengths and UV-resistant options and thus can be used to work with different print processes like digital imaging, silk screen inks and painting. Also, they are available in a range of pigmented and removable colours.
The advantages of flexible-face in billboards
Flexible-faces are, as the name implies, flexible and so less prone to breakage and cracking. They are often less expensive than rigid plastics, too.
Flexible-face signs are designed to withstand winds of speed 110 to 140 mile per hour, hence they are ideal for huge billboards on the expressways and national highways, where they are positioned at great heights. These signs are safer than rigid plastic and metal signs as they will not blow off and hurt anyone. Rigid materials can shatter and the pieces can turn into projectiles in high wind and storm conditions.
Flex is also appropriate for signs with faces larger than 10 feet by 10 feet because making these signs with rigid faces would require seaming that is often unattractive. Flex signs also retain their shape better than rigid ones. They can be stretched tight and also tightened further if necessary, by lessening the torque on the clips that hold it in place.
Flex signs are impervious to most kinds of vandalism as it will not shatter or crack. Projectiles would only boomerang!
Flex signs offer flexibility in taking on graphics. It is amenable to screen printing, inkjet printing or painting, thus opening up more channels of creativity.
With this flexibility, consistency in printing can be maintained across locations.
Easy transportation is possible with flex face signs as they can merely be rolled up and carried.
Frontlit vs backlit billboards
Backlit signs are without doubt superior to frontlit ones, stresses Mr Chakravorty, as their effect is very dramatic. But then they are twice as expensive too! But the high picture clarity and resolution achievable with flex make frontlits extremely effective as well. Indeed they are the most widely used. Frontlit vinyls are wrapped around wood or flat steel sheet face panel of conventional billboards and held in place by a system of tensioned ratchet straps. The lighting system is placed in front of the panels at the base. Backlit computer painted vinyls are encased in aluminium frames which have concealed lighting in them. In frontlits, the largest size measures 48 ft by almost 17 ft, with the most common size measuring 36ft in width by 12ft in height. Backlit flexible can be 8 sheet or 4 sheet or even smaller in size.
THE BIG SPENDERS
Reliance Infocomm is the second largest spender now on outdoor media, in the telecom sector, says the company's Assistant Vice President - Marketing, Mr Narendra Tyagi. At the time of the Reliance India Mobile launch last year, it certainly was the first, according to him. Even now, between 40 and 45 percent of the total outdoor advertising space is taken up by Reliance Infocomm.
According to research conducted by a New York based agency a little while ago, of the ten major spenders on outdoor advertising, local services and amusements topped the list, followed by public transport, hotels, resorts, etc. Then came miscellaneous merchandise, restaurants and retail, in that order. Media and advertising itself came seventh, followed by automotive services and dealers, insurance and other financial services. In India, cellular operators and networks have been big spenders in the outdoor media.
Hoardings are, of course, the main vehicle used outdoors. But Reliance also uses a lot of other tools like bus shelters, pole kiosks, banners, signages, tree guards, inflatables, etc. Entire stretches of road in metros are rented for lamppost space. With a flyover spanning a kilometre having approximately 120 lampposts, the requirement of pole kiosks in an entire city can well be imagined. Although fewer in number than other vehicles, Reliance also uses neon signs. Where hoardings are disallowed, other utilities like gantries are utilised, as also various street furniture. Even road dividers become potential advertising space with signages put up on the railings.
Orange, Hutchison Telecom's consumer brand, is another industry giant that has a huge outdoor presence. From hoardings to signages, pole kiosks, carton danglers, and much more, they are very visible indeed. Between Orange and Reliance, the outdoor space, especially the signages, seem to have been used up! But Airtel and BPL have been focussing on increasing their visibility. Airtel especially has been very aggressive, says Mr Tyagi, resulting in Reliance Infocomm having to go to second place. 'But we have always been the ones to lead', he says. 'From launching new programmes like the recent 99 paise per call deal, to getting the most competitive rates from vendors for services, we have always led the way and others have followed', asserts Mr Tyagi. With the huge volumes of custom the company gives the vendors, it is little wonder that it can command its price!
MAINTENANCE OF HOARDINGS
While many companies leave the maintenance of the outdoor ads to the agencies or the site owners, others like Reliance Infocomm prefer to look after that aspect themselves, thus reducing chances of error or glitches. Details like the stretching of the flex face, the condition of the spotlights, the unobstructed view the hoarding enjoys, are all meticulously monitored by the marketing team. The company also believes in getting the most out of the vehicles they use. 'We use the standard 10 ft x 10 ft size as far as possible', says Mr Tyagi. 'Apart from allowing for easy transportation, production costs are kept low as printing need not be customised as per different size needs. The hoardings can easily be reused elsewhere too as most sites support infrastructure for that size. We even reuse the material itself, at times,' points out Mr Tyagi.
Hoardings - here to stay
Despite protests against hoardings by environmentalists and citizens' groups, they remain an inevitable part of any city's skyline. With alternate options like mobile hoardings, mounted on trucks, this particular vehicle of outdoor advertising is here to stay, in one form or the other.
A Case in Point
The launch of Reliance India Mobile last year was a mammoth one in terms of scope and proportion. The outdoor advertising was handled by Primesite. The launch was done simultaneously in 110 cities. It later went on to cover a total of 567 cities. 410 vendors were used to provide the various advertising products. A total of 12 lakh square feet of printing space was covered. 1700 billboards were put up. 45 different kinds of medium were used, that ranged from hoardings to glowsigns to building wraps. In some places a 100-ft cutout of the handset was used. Where there was a ban against hoardings, for example, in Delhi, utilities were used as advertising sites.
Another campaign handled by Primesite is Reliance Energy. As it is restricted to Mumbai, the campaign is, of course, not as large-scale as the RIM one. Hoardings, pole kiosks, signages, are some of the medium used. Besides that, customer care centres, bill collection centres, the personnel manning the centres, and even the bill itself, have been included as vehicles to project the brand image as the 'Company that Cares'. Thus it has been a total branding exercise and hoardings have played a big role.