 Good morning, everyone. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this fireside chat at neon's fourth or fifth Conference, so congratulations to exchange for media team and thanks for inviting us. I represent add-on more Which is the largest digital out-of-home Publisher in India and we are joined by mr. Ajay Mehta in today's fireside chat And Ajay generally doesn't need any introduction. He's a Celebrity in the OH media world. He's added a lot of change and bringing a lot of transformation In the industry So Ajay, welcome to this fireside chat Ajay will need a mic So welcome to this chat and And You have led transformation in the industry for many years You've been driving Current transformation and defining future rules. We have a lot to learn today and get a download from you And So welcome So we're observing the industry is observing a lot of transformation right now with with various technologies Into playing infrastructure changing Lot of new companies. Thanks to limb Leticia. Thank you. I think this was a great presentation and a lot to learn Now you've been observing change now change We can potentially see with technology is either building transparency like we saw In terms of reach of media itself, which has been Kind of a question that has been bothering brands and marketers for many years It also helps in bringing agility in terms of turnaround time today On various digital platforms out-of-home platforms, you can activate a campaign on the fly Which was not the case in terms of what we saw earlier. So there is transformation happening Today reach can be figured out transparently agility interactivity today I can Hear out the audiences, which was not the case earlier. You can interact with with with various media How do you see this change and what's the future? Firstly, I don't think even half of what rajiv said about me is true. So that's marketer's exaggeration, but thank you nevertheless Firstly, I want to talk about what is digital out-of-home, right? I don't think the industry at large understands what is digital out-of-home Most of the time if there's a screen put up at any point at any place People assume that is digital out-of-home for me. That is not I mean all we are doing is changing a static image to a video or a J for whatever but that really doesn't qualify For me anything which is powered by at tech right where technology is an enabler To make it more contextual to make it more relevant That that is digital out-of-home and If we put that filter or look at DOH from that prism, we are really at the first stage Or taking baby steps In in this in this direction. So so let's get that out of the way. We are very early in the DOH revolution or the do DOH journey As far as measurement as far as you know analytics and everything else is concerned When when you're asking me that question what I was remembering was a quote from David Ogilvy that said 50% of advertising is wasted But the question is which 50% right? So when when we move down This route or this journey of of enabling advertising through technology and data What what we are doing is ensuring that 50% wastage Reduces if not goes away and and makes the whole thing more relevant I'm pretty new to the out-of-home space, but when I joined I looked at the overall TYNY numbers which group M publishes every year and I found out really a weird Train when it came to out-of-home If you'd really look at it from a five-year perspective and add inflation to it this industry hasn't grown Right. It's probably it probably grows less than inflation. I'm not talking about the covid years But just overall if you look at it covid years obviously dampened us even further And one of the reasons according to me Why why this is the case Is that there was no measurement around it. There was no Knowing we did not move with the times. We did not move into the digitized world We were the oldest medium and we seem to be happy being being the oldest medium What this revolution which you spoke about the modern infrastructure the technology what it does is it brings the oldest Industry into the digital world and as we move in that direction We have an opportunity of becoming Not an industry which is not growing But but probably the fastest growing segment of the media industry Sure, I think that opens up a lot of interesting questions Switching very quickly to the next part which again, I will bring up leticia's presentation Data is gold Now doh or oh will become doh largely with with data intervention like you just mentioned Now data could be used for audience Indicators their preferences location based indicators. So let me quickly tell you or at at Like 30 seconds on it. So add on more we have built around a screen network of 30,000 plus by end of the year we should be 50,000 plus screens And we are capturing a lot of first party data At a location level at an audience level their preference their engagement with media with regards to dwell time With regards to their interaction. How are they behaving when they're seeing the ad various things? So first party data on how can I plan better etc? Now, so that's what we are trying to do our bit to the digital side of the business How do you see this happening across a larger? Expans of out of home Data coming into play data being utilized and data being trusted In previous presentation. I was about to ask leticia saying you are saying this data perfect Is there a third party layer of validation? Do you see that happening in new course or how will this data story shape up? So I read somewhere 80 percent of the data stored on the internet is location based data Right and what is out of home? It is location based advertising So the relevance of data to out of home Advertising or location data to out of home advertising cannot be overstated. So let's get that completely clear You spoke about third party verification, of course, I mean one of the Faults of of this industry or of this ecosystem is That we haven't united Uh in the way some of the other industries or some of the other mediums have Getting third party verification is an essential and not just from anyone from an extremely credible source I mean, I don't even think I mean, it's funny that in 2023 we are even debating or talking about that that's a given And we should the quicker we move into that direction the better it is The question is how do you go about it? How do you make sure it is credible? How do you make sure it is accepted by the industry today You spoke about add-on more and the 30,000 screens going to 50,000 screens just a basic Back of the envelope calculation and we were just discussing it earlier Would actually make add-on more larger than some of the print Uh leading print media owners or the reach which the print media provides But when it comes to your share or or the share of even digital out of home in in the total pie You can't even compare it to print So there in that lies the opportunity and that you're just one of the players right taking that as an example and you Look at it touch point after touch point digital network after digital network And the opportunity is immense I mean We as I said earlier, we are one of the older mediums Digital out of home and data intervention can make us the newest medium Digital out of home is a separate medium as far as I'm concerned than traditional out of home It is at a cost. We are at an inflection point If we get it right We are poised for 10 years of or 20 years Of superlative growth if we get it wrong. We are living. We are going to be living in a flat Industry with hardly any growth an anarchic Way of functioning so according to me There's no choice The quicker we do this the better it is and what I find is Every network or every agency is going down its own direction With no common standards with no common Parameters on how to judge Audiences etc And that needs to change Absolutely, I think you're absolutely right. I think we need to come together as an industry and identify various So natural segway from this discussion becomes Talking about the elephant in the room ROI modeling If I'm putting x amount, what am I getting in return? And that leads to attribution So a lot of times we have observed in fact to our teams. We've got a pretty large team of 200 plus people We tell them Don't pick up budgets that are like mercy money. We we use the term I I learned from someone recently No mercy money because if you take mercy money, you get it once you kill the client forever So that's So with lack of attribution and with lack of data, which will bring to attribution There will be challenges in terms of growth, etc So what is the industry doing as per? Say kinetic is the largest Agency group M has the largest access to brands and information everything What do you think in terms of attribution and ROI modeling? Where we we should be knowing audience's interaction There should be a like we just saw in the previous presentation a marriage between devices And uh measuring individuals and maybe not their ids India will adopt a gdpr plus plus. We are going to do Control c control v and add five more points. It's going to be complex data management future With that as a given How will ROI models get built and how will attribution shape up? So firstly what we are doing, I'm not going to reveal in this room A lot of my friends and ambassadors are sitting over here. So that's not something I'm going to talk about But firstly, I think before you before I answer your question directly Do people in the room realize that it is a responsibility As media owners as media agencies to provide ROI to clients That is for me the essential question it When someone invests in our medium, it is our responsibility To showcase what we deliver for them If we don't Like I said, and I like the term mercy money You know, we we'll be doing a disservice not just to the client but to ourselves and the industry will never grow Attribution today when everyone has has a smartphone in their pocket And like I spoke earlier about location data being widely available Is something which which is very easy to do it is something which is naturally one should be doing it And if you ask me why Enough of it is not happening Is because I don't think we've up up skilled or upgraded our teams our work the people in this industry to be able to do that Till the time we don't do that Any kind of ROI calculations ROI modeling Is not going to be Is it's not going to happen in a meaningful manner The first step before you go down on this journey is to upgrade and upskill Our own cells and bring ourselves And the entire ecosystem into this digital and data driven world The moment you do that and you can confidently speak About ROI and and You know stuff like that to clients And your orientation changes Today there are enough models available From the digital ecosystem which can be adapted and applied to the out of home world So the first thing for me is actually to start with our own people Fantastic, I think that that is a very critical point that you've highlighted Adoption will be a function of knowledge And acceptance of change around completely with you There can't be a discussion that can be completed today without artificial intelligence Google has released a kind of an answer to chat gpt called bard Again not available in the european union for their own gdp r norms, etc Now artificial intelligence Can it be applied in oh it seems like a farfetched thought but if you think about it It could be used for various things. It could be used for Dynamic creative optimization It could be used for Measurement it could be used for mood and kind of a sentiment analysis on if I saw the creative Was I upset happy, etc Unlimited scope that comes to mind Process automation is the least honestly speaking Programmatic in digital is largely to step one is automation In artificial intelligence usage that goes without saying looks like Out of home industry will have to Leap And jump and move to the next stage and maybe adopt the future of technology today How do you see artificial intelligence? Which is going to be touching everybody's life and every business every brand And oh h and where do you think that collaboration can happen? so uh You gave some examples of where it can be used according to me in the first stage where it can get used is predictive analysis, right? What is the reach which a campaign can deliver that can be predicted? through artificial intelligence, we all speak about measurement, but Measurement is a post-factor event It begins with actually predicting or for us as an industry which is between two three four percent depending on which report you go by Is to first convince the client? To invest in this medium and their artificial intelligence can play a huge role also The internet of things right object recognition face recognition mood Recognition all of those can help us calculate the ROIs in a much stronger manner Something which this industry is not doing much or doing it very slowly People or organizations who will move down this journey will create a lot of value Such as what what you guys have created with with your fundraise and and I think that's just a first step in in a long journey It will also convince a lot of clients to invest a lot more Because if we keep playing in the out of home pie It's one of the last budgets to get approved a lot of it is mercy money A lot of it is savings from another medium, but the moment you bring artificial intelligence and other technologies into This what what you're doing is you're opening up To reach out to the digital budgets, which we all know today are the larger budgets And there is a certain fatigue which is already coming into digital advertising which set into out of home Advertising a few years ago and the moment you use technologies like this You are refreshing not just digital but also out of home And answering questions and talking in a language Which clients today speak internally and expect to be spoken to So so for me artificial intelligence is a huge game changer It's something which we are investing in and we think that is going to be the next leap forward for the out of home industry Perfect. I think that was that was very reassuring that you are adopting it and you will be guiding the path for the industry as well We are happy to collaborate as a company. We are we work closely and We are setting a lot of data that we believe can be leveraged Etc. So conclusion looks like There is no way that data technology artificial intelligence will not intervene without a form Like you said manpower needs to be equipped first We need to accept enable move on I think we need to take a pledge that next year when we are back in the conference Today I want you to rate. Where do we stand on digital transformation? You are driving so you can give a number and next year we should be at least two points ahead of that And give some advice to all friends colleagues and industry veterans sitting in the hall On what should be done to make this move faster? So to rate it on a scale of 0 to 10 I think we are at probably 0.1 or 0.2. I think we are that slow And I think as you spoke India specializes in leaping technologies Right, we go from one generation of technology to the fifth missing 234 And that that's really my ambition for for not just Group I'm out of home and kinetic but also for the industry at large So I think in a year's time we should be reaching three four If we don't we are doing a disservice to ourselves And sorry, any other advice that's I have only two pieces of advice and two pieces Of thoughts rather. I'm nobody to advise Anyone but two pieces of thoughts are first Recognizing that change is the only constant and if we don't change with the times we'll get left behind And if we recognize and accept that which which is always difficult Because we are set in our ways a lot of people have been In the media industry for the last 20 30 years and never needed to change that much Uh is first recognizing that change is the only constant and The world belongs to people who change with the times Otherwise you get left behind and second is Upskilling yourselves and our teams to capture this opportunity you do these two things The opportunity is extremely large The opportunity is now And and as the previous speakers spoke Globally it is already happening So there's no reason why why it shouldn't happen here But it begins with ourselves about our own recognition That we need to change and then moving in that direction to actually make that change fantastic So I am very motivated as add-on more We are committed and we would like to contribute Inching from point one to maybe four next time. We need a leap jump. Thanks a lot for your time And thanks for being so patient with us. Thank you so much Thank you