 good afternoon everyone So today is the second day of the conference. I'm not going to share many complex charts graphs and a lot of data right now I'm just going to share with you. What is our perspective of reality of digital out of form the way we see it today in India? So what we have captured over here are the different stages of digital out of form that we see in India today This year we considered or I would say, you know the years that we are going through are the second innings of digital out of form in India The first innings was way back in 2008-9 when digital out of form started over a period of years It kind of established itself and 2015-16 onwards We have seen greater traction in terms of the volumes which have come up in different ambiences across different places, different geos, etc So if you just see the trajectory, it has really grown First the growth was across transit and then place-based when I say place-based it covers basically all those areas Where in digital out of form is present across gyms, restaurants, residential, etc, etc Before I, you know, talk more about it, just want to share that for any new media to proliferate There are primarily four stages which it goes through any kind of new media and this is medium agnostic There are four key stages the first stages of Development stage when the media technologies are being developed That is the time when new media technologies are being invented a lot of money is getting into research And the second stage is all about proliferation Where in these new media technologies, they are being widely shared with the people and consumers are adopting these technologies and the third stages of Convergence where in different mediums they converge with each other and they merge with each other and the four stages of ubiquity stage Where in the media becomes so pervasive that it kind of becomes invisible completely And that is a time when another medium comes and becomes a disruptor And this is my hypothesis that in digital out of form today We are in stage two we are in a stage of proliferation and each stage has its own Opportunities and challenges. So let's have a look at where exactly we are in India as of now So one we have seen increased space of roadside UH. We have seen some impact sites coming up across few Metrocities, I would say but if you look at the map, which is over there You will see there's a huge traction in terms of roadside UH across top 25 cities If we were to bundle up the volumes where this growth is happening It is not only metrocities, but even tier one cities as well Today as on date And the bar tops this list when wherein there are more than hundred plus do at sites and all these numbers combined together Contribute to three percent of the total DOH in India Second place-based networks lead the volumes why they lead the volumes because it amalgamates lots of mediums together's all the Mods multiplexers gyms restaurants et cetera et cetera come over here and this is a big chunk and this chunk is contributing to 67% of the total DOH and out of this entire chunk Residential DOH tops the list and nowadays through residential DOH It is we are able to garner significant reach across metro markets in tier one markets These are some of the stunner sites that I have deliberately put up over here This shows the way DOH has grown in India across ambiances now we can do campings on these stunner sites Third is their increase in the transit networks that we have seen across a ports across railway stations across metro stations In fact, there are few DOH assets, which also have audio capabilities right now And this entire piece contributes to 30% of the total DOH as it stands in India today As they say when the market expansion happens creative Experimentation is not much behind and that is very true of our country as well This is the kind of work that our agency has done in the last one year And I will just name few of the Creative Enhancements tech integration that we have all done for multiple clients of ours Ranging from enomorphic which is 2d, 3d, QR codes across duet screens, dynamic creatives Countdown timers, API integrations, full-motion creatives, live streaming Using differential creatives on sequential sites and having live deals and offers on different DOH And this is the work of one agency in the last one and a half year And I'm sure if we were to bundle up all the work that all the agencies and all other media partners have done In the last two years or three years in India, we have really come a long way in digital out-of-home Also, there is increased Creative dexterity now in terms of the way we are Using the creatives in digital out-of-home We now in fact across multiple media partners, creative part time-based is available Multiple creatives can be deployed over time You can do a set level customization which we have been experimenting with which we have been piloting with for different Clients of ours. You can do 2d, 3d enomorphic creatives at the same time You can do a play between static and dynamic videos as well. I Spoke just now about the tech integration that we have done in the last one and a half year Also, there are a couple of media partners who are also providing a lot of audience data While you know, I must say that everybody is not in a position to provide this level of data But yes, we have seen some green shoots of nice data Which is coming our way in the form of demographic details reach and impression numbers Some have even tried to arrive at multiplier impression numbers Behavioral affinities and also log reports are coming in but again There's a lot of struggle over there to garner this kind of data But yes, there are some media partners who have taken the onus on them to provide all these details While this is all very good stuff that we are talking about I also want to talk about few challenges that we see right now in this medium While we were collating this I sat with my team to arrive at this list And it was a long list, but you know, we have just bundled all of this into three parts There are three I would say bigger buckets of the challenges of DOH that we see today the first pertains to infrastructural challenges and high pricing especially roadside DOH the second part pertains to efficiency in effectiveness and The third part is of regulatory framework, which plays a very important role in outer form Going to the first point of infrastructure limitations and high pricing I just want to make one point very clear to all the stakeholders of DOH that there is uneven Proliferation of digital outer form assets, which is happening Pan India It is not restricted to any specific geography, but it's happening Pan India across Markets and it's very disheartening right now since this conference is happening in the city of Mumbai We have used the map of Mumbai to showcase how disparate this coverage is If we were to do a mid-sized campaign of outer form, we generally take around 20-25 billboards But if we were to do a campaign using DOH as of today, it is just restricted to three to four Hot spots which are highlighted in red It shows the limitations of the reach that DOH spread is giving to us today and it is happening all across It's not only Mumbai per se, but across markets Second bit, which is more worrying is the fact that road-sized DOH is becoming very expensive Road-side DOH as compared to same-static bigger sites is on an average 10 to 15 percent more expensive While the impressions are much more less because this is being consumed on a spot basis itself And this is a very worrying trend not only for DOH But also for outer form itself because outer form in India is very inflationary in nature In the last couple of years because of the debacle that we had because of the COVID the rates are just going up the new tenders are expensive So some way down the line We need to check the pricing moderate the pricing of the sets if you want the industry if you want DOH as a medium to grow further Second big bit, which is again a big grouse is the fact that you know Few media partners today are giving location impressions, which is not correct We need to have spot-wise impressions Which can be made available It's little bit of more tech than what they have currently plus mathematical advanced mathematical modeling Which can be done, but which is not being done right now And I this is a big ask from all the advertisers and from the all the specialist agencies Second bit that the earlier panel also were discussing is the fact that you know, there are no creative guidelines DOH is a different Medium altogether it needs to be used consumed in a very very different way, which is not happening None of the media partners today are in a position to tell us what works What doesn't work in which champion should you do? You know, maybe let's say a dynamic video or a 10-seconder and 15-seconder a couple of days back in our office Only we were debating what works better 10-seconder 15-seconder 25-seconder because the dwell time is different Malls are different Airports are different bus depots are different what works where nobody has any clue While we are mounting pilots with our advertisers to understand, you know, I would say this Uncertainty and this ambiguity that do which is giving today. This is an area wherein Everybody needs to work though a look talked about a business idea that he had that he's going to start a creative agency But I think the onus is on all the stakeholders and it's not only the media partners But I think everybody needs to collaborate over here to figure out what works for this medium in the most optimal way Third most important bit is again pertaining to the fact that there is no research Very less research money is being spent on the researchers. There are no brand list studies which are happening Now when advertisers are putting in the money in let's say out of form or any other medium They want to see the returns. They want to understand whether this money is well spent or not Because things are becoming very difficult at advertisers and as well, you know, every penny that they spend is being questioned Internally as well as externally but digital out of form doesn't have any answers today So we need to put a little more effort over here to create a nice rich body of work Which can answer question which all the advertisers are asking today Thirdly, I would say the most important component of this entire Matrix that we have is the regulatory framework that we have The fact that there is uneven proliferation against tense To this fact only that the regulation for out of form is uneven across cities There are multiple corporations involved in all but there has to be some way in in the sense that wherein we can go to them Collectively and tell them to you know, plan DOH is in a certain way because DOH adds to the beauty even out of form Do is both they add to the beauty of the cities wherever they are present in So there's a lot of work that is required over here. Secondly, the licensing procedures Should be made easier for the media partners for them to proliferate further Because of all this ambiguity which is there in the background. There is fragmentation of ownership. I Heard the earlier panel also talking about the fragmentation and the fact that you know, there are regulatory hurdles We need to fix those and do something about it While it's a long list of challenges that we just bundle up together I'm not going to spend much time over here But the big question that I'm going to ask everyone over here is do you think there is any hope? Do you think that we can do anything to fix it? Please tell me honest opinion say a yes or a no Do you think this can be fixed all these challenges or something and happen out of it? Okay, so I hear a yes and I agree with you that it's a yes We can definitely fix if not all of it, but some part of it So moving on to the fact that you know, how do we build the speed better? How do we ensure that you which also contributes to the growth of out of form at the end of the day the industry will improve? So again, I have divided this into four parts one. We need to have more industry collaboration When I say industry collaboration advertisers creative agencies Specialist agencies media partners we need to sit together We need to share our learnings in terms of again, what works what doesn't work? How does a particular medium, you know behaves in a certain ambience? What all guard rail should be there from a creative perspective? While all of us in numerous conferences have been talking about the fact that the out of home copy gets Adapted the print copy gets adapted to out of form. What is it that we have done to fix it? So couple of us at on the special agency sites have taken Multiple measures to fix this and to create some guard rails guidelines for the clients and all of that But there is a bigger industry collaboration which is required to have workshops learnings case study shit, etc. Etc. Second part which is most important is Is that they should be even infrastructure development across ambiances and roadside? So that you know, there is a balance between glut and paucity We have seen in few markets right now. They're leading. I can see that future where in few markets are leading towards a situation of glut Where in after couple of months, there will be so much of oversupply that we really don't know whether those sites or those slots will be sold or not Which again would be a very Sad situation for the media partners who have made investments. So over there we need to have some sanity and a far-sightedness at the end of municipal operations to plan this out thirdly from the media partners we need higher tech and Data integration in terms of multiple things the way the planning is happening the way deployment is happening the way Verification of play out is happening a lot of work is required over there today Also, if you ask for log reports log reports are provided But after some point of time so that is something that needs to change at the media partners end Most importantly, we need to train our people and when I say we need to train our people We need to train everyone. We need to train our own teams. We need to train the clients We need to train the brand teams. We need to train the creative agencies Because they really don't know how do it works. Do it just very very different It pans out very differently and which we are though at our end. We are doing Some workshop for the clients as well to train them, but I think it has to happen at a bigger scale Where and we need to train people especially even within special agencies not everybody can today plan and buy a digital out of Home apart from that they cannot even deploy it So there are huge challenges over there in upskilling of the people and I think it is the need of the hour We need to upscale our people the entire ecosystem. It's not only agencies or partners even the clients advertisers need to be trained in this medium Okay It was a long list that I shared earlier and we all know that we can't boil the ocean Even if we want to we cannot do everything together So we will have to sift through a couple of things that we need to focus on we need to identify a few action points that we need to Go after so this is what I've written down over here that one we do definitely train our people training is need of the hour Rational pricing will do wonders for the medium If you are able to moderate prices make roadside digital out of phone much more economical much more competitive than static It will definitely open up more avenues Land infrastructure is also required and definitely a lot got spoken about Unlocking creativity, so I'm not going to spend more time over there But yes, there is tremendous Scope to unlock higher creativity a lot more is possible in terms of duration What all can we do and the way it can be integrated with technology? And lastly measurement. We have seen some green shoots happening on DOH as well, but they need to be made better Measurement has to be low-cost and scalable It can't be restricted to just one media partner who's providing it it has to be scalable because all of us handle national Advertisers who have national rollouts across cities and across touch points Thank you