 All right, ladies and gentlemen while we know that the stage is setting up and prepping up It's now time to introduce our next first standalone Speaking session on out-of-home industry needs a common voice for self regulation and our speaker is mr. Indrajeet Sen CEO Indian Outdoor Advertising Association Well, ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together to welcome mr. Indrajeet Sen CEO Indian Outdoor Advertising Association and it gives me great pleasure to introduce the man CEO of Indian Outdoor Advertising Association Limited The only national Association of Indian out-of-home advertising industry a body that Indrajeet had helped establish and presently guides in establishing best practices industry research and analytics Updating regulatory provisions together with government bodies and other Activities that promote the industry with positive perceptions among all stakeholders. Let's have a huge round of applause Yes, ladies and gentlemen Thank you very much. Thanks very much Yeah So we ready to go Hmm. Oh We are ahead Okay, so here we are Which industry needs a common voice for self regulation as you are all aware I am with the IO double a quick recap body that was registered as a not-for-profit in 2007 with objective of protecting and promoting interests of outdoor advertising media companies since 2007 we have come a long way and The industry now at least has some semblance of being at least a partially organized industry However, most importantly OH media companies from across the country Guwahati to Rajkot and Jammu to Tiruvananthapuram are all members now about Close to 300 or so and growing Not all mind you But all the important ones Barring one or two are members today Revenue wise IO double a members would account for about 70 to 75 percent of the total industry revenues Which is estimated to be close to around 3,600 crores this year at the risk of boring some of you I will remind you of some of the statistics and the facts that has been the cause for this presentation OH advertising media in India has some 12 to 1400 companies or proprietors ships that own Or have erected anything from two or three hoardings to some companies with hundreds and even thousands of media properties Out of this only 12 have national or multi regional presence Another seven that has some extensive presence within one region and Another five or so that has presence in two states This extreme fragmentation of media ownership has given birth to one unique category of dealers in this business the aggregator in In an effort by advertisers and agencies to try deal with lesser number of vendors Aggregators are very very essential. So now let's try to implement Any one common practice in this country of 1400 plus media vendors. I Think I think you're getting the picture, you know recently we at IO double a have been deeply Engaged in trying to get Digital OH regulations adapted along global lines in our various municipalities and states during this exercise Every research and survey report as well as detailed recommendations backed by authoritative studies on Regulations that we came across were authored by respective national associations of their dep or their deputed agencies in the u.s. Australia UK Europe South Africa, etc and These are countries except the u.s. Where the number of OH media companies involved are hardly a dozen or so Point being that even they have found the need to be need to for coming together to implement regulations and practices before authorities force something unpalatable down your throat and Let's make no mistake OH is treated similarly in every country ours is no exception We face the same issues here as far as regulations are concerned and If it is solely left to any authority anywhere to enact regulations strictly by themselves Then they will always earn on the side of extreme caution This is a fact that will never change unless That is the subject in this case OH media companies get together and organize studies research reports by institutes of higher learning specialists of impeccable repute and face up to the facts of these reports and then recommend those regulations based on those studies That is the only chance there is of overcoming Irrational over cautious assumptions made by typical policy makers while framing regulations The typical scenario in most municipalities and states start with some irrational and arbitrary size specifications for hoardings, you know the most common form of OH in India then the owner shifts to the media companies they take over and They then adapt innovative means to club multiple licenses and sites to create huge sizes and Then other companies do the same because no one wants to be left behind and Soon the whole city is filled with boards of all kinds of sizes and at every nook and cranny and While all this is going on other citizens of the city observe with alarm at the rapidly deteriorating aesthetics poor placements hazardous construction and very soon regulators are forced to climb down and that Immediately causes all the media owners to go to court or to their political allies to regularize matters but if you note where it all started in the first place if The media companies had jointly developed a reasonable Regulatory measure offered the same to the authorities as well as started voluntarily implementing it themselves It would have been far far better for both the business and the health of all the companies individually and collectively and This doesn't stop only with regulations a Highly competitive business environment with lax regulatory oversight always leads to commutatization of offerings and Then the only competitive advantage is prices and longer credit periods and in market after market in India Outdoor rates have not only not moved up But I've actually gone down as newer illegal sites have come up next to the one that had been asking for premium prices last year and Who is it benefiting? Over the years it's become an accepted norm that outdoors will be paid in any time around 180 days however It is only when I away came together and explain the issues clearly to the larger companies that matters started to come together Ultimately it has taken about four years For a standard operating process to be put in place with all the major agencies subscribing to it, too No doubt it has caused some Giving away of advantages by some companies, but they did see the overall collective gain to be more attractive. I Can of course go on with different examples But is it really necessary to understand that coming together To follow reasonable and commonly accepted norms and practices Establishes the industry as not only a mature one But also one in which companies do not need to fritter their energies in rushing into a downward spiral and Instead focus on developing much needed steps on branding their media Developing innovative solutions serving advertisers better and so many other details that can increase media share for OH in a big way benefitting all stakeholders Because the fact another fact of life is that despite all the growth talk that we've been hearing 6% to 13% The actual share of out-of-home in the media spends has been steadily reducing over the last 10 years It is now just around 5% from heady 8 to 9 percent some 18 years ago when Anurag left the industry in fact In an effort to make it easier for companies in the north to come together We recently formed the IOA north chapter based in Delhi Again the large companies are members But please think about it is the smaller companies who can benefit the most from being part of a large association And they need to see this light of day very very quickly We of course look forward to the day when our industry can also organize themselves like print or TV or even radio broadcasters Thanks very much for the opportunity to be here with you and I look forward to some questions because There should be some Yeah, any questions, please Any questions anyone? Yeah, please Yeah, that is Okay for the benefit of those who did not hear the question I think is talking about what I think about research coming into the industry That this is one of those issues that are pending again the collective will of the industry to come together because End of the day it's the media companies that have to Pay for and Subscribe to that to the research. Okay once the research is in place then agencies and Advertisers will gladly use it But you have to first Realize what the research is all about one of the basic parts of media research is a Thing called site rating Okay, without a site rating you cannot determine the viewability and therefore you cannot determine What kind of traffic is going to be seeing it in and you cannot arrive at a reach out of frequency? so if you have to Get into the site rating every company may need to face the facts and sacrifice some of their poorer sites and Gain more from the rest Are we willing to do that? So far the answer that I have got from across the country Including our own members Unfortunately, is that they are not all ready to do it some are Most are not till they come together and talk about The subject of the today's discussion self-regulation. Nothing is going to move forward. Have I answered your question? Yeah Hey So at the outset, thank you for that wonderful introduction about the present state of scenario in watch industry Now in the previous Panel discussion one of the key points that were highlighted was about collaborative growth between different media industries and We wanted to understand that what would be your guidance for instance a Chennai airport We have a patent pending solution for OHH industry and we've been trying hard for the last four months Or to find collaborative partners in other airports across India So through a concerted effort, what would be your guidance to find the right collaborative partners across the country? See that is a what you were asking for is a specific business advice, okay? but What I'm trying what I would rather tell you is that? You know we heard so much about digital OH this entire con conference is going to be about digital OH You know how many places digital OH is permitted in India? There's about some six or seven cities rest are not okay. The rest are myopic enough not even to consider Digital OH on the main roads. They say digital OH. Oh, this is going to be terrible It's going to create all kinds of people piling on and therefore we will limit that only to locations Where it can look away from the roads Okay, so indoor OH is all right. I mean indoor digital is all right. Outdoor digital is not all right in fact our last couple of You know months have been going in trying to convince municipality after municipality and The Bombay municipality may be ready, but the police aren't yet Okay, and we do not have any indigenous research of our own. We have to only depend upon research and studies that are built that have been done abroad and See to what extent that relates to India for that to be applicable, which is what was Bringing me to say that unless we decide to get together and we decide to through an association go to You know an impeccable institution to do that research in the similar way That it has been done in these other countries and in an environment which is relevant to India Would we ever convince our You know national highway authority of India which has the most draconian Rules as far as outdoor. I mean advertising on roads is concerned forget about digital I mean even conventional is terrible and to be done away immediately as far as they are concerned Okay, so without the industry coming together and of course it will mean self-regulation of course it will mean that you have to do away with your 160 feet by 240 feet hooding But we have to be prepared to do that. I mean if we are not prepared to do that then all our discussions on Digital OH and how far it will take us and how good it will be will all remain in this hall and all good intentions and Your money will stay invested Yeah Anything? Yeah, please I know it. I'm Pramod. Okay. Yeah Indra get the good it was you explained that we should have a common voice for self-regulation and we should be self-regulation Regulated as a community of which community But I'm worried really, you know while we are talking measurement research It cannot happen and one of the panelists before really Repeated couple of times that we are not ready Why we are not ready because first of all we have to go to the roots really, you know How the cities are going to regulate it first until unless the city the city boss or we have a common Policy across the country or not across the country across the state Until unless that happens how we can do that. I mean that's a big challenge and how I Oh, he's going to handle that or to tackle that Can you please X plain a bit on that? IOAA has already taken it up see the only Government authority that is anywhere close to regulating Outdoor advertising is the Ministry of Urban Development because they oversee municipalities and municipalities Have the mandate for out-of-home advertising So IOAA is already taking it upon itself to be in close touch with the Ministry of Urban Development to develop guidelines and a model code for outdoor regulations nationally It's going to take again It's going to take a bit of a time because we need to you know that lobby Scenario has to be done and there has to be enough Presence seen and enough support seen across the country for the Ministry to realize that yes It is worth taking a look at and only then will that thing get get moving However, there have been some small gains in terms of there have been municipalities across the country important ones like Mumbai certain other cities where our proposals on Digital and our proposals on the overall situation have been accepted smart cities Administrations nationally have been very open to our regulations and things like that We're talking about IOT being a backbone for smart cities, etc, etc We have been trying to point out that out-of-home is one of the best ways that a Smart city backbone can be actually made visible to people At the levels where it can be it's on the road where it can be seen where it can be used if you do not have a smart bus shelter which has a display which does which is showing when the next bus is coming or and You know being Also open to a two-way communication in terms of seeking emergency services, etc We'll never see that happening Now all this is now beginning to get accepted Obviously, we need more support at the back end to go and stand up and say that listen We do represent a huge part of the country. So therefore, please listen to us Thank you so much, and I think we're going to be out of time. Thank you so much. All right Well, thank you so much, Mr. Sen for your lovely words of encouragement and every single detail that your talk entailed I would request you to please stay on stage as I invite Mr. Pramod Bhandula to give away the memento Executive Chairman JC Decox advertising India private limited. Let's have a huge round of applause. Please ladies and gentlemen Request you to please take center stage for your photograph