Pushing Outdoor

Terrence Alexander

UK's Posterscope, one of the world's biggest out-of-home (OOH) media specialist, is now in India through the Rs 1,000 crore Percept Group's outdoor division. The company announced buying a 51 per cent equity in Percept to launch its operations in India. Founded in 1982 in the UK, Posterscope was bought over in 1991 by the Aegis Group plc headquartered in London.

Today, Posterscope operates in 14 countries, boasts of billings of over $ 1.5 billion, claims a 42 per cent market share in the UK alone and has clients such as Glaxo Smithkline, General Electric and Reckitt Benckiser.

Terrence Alexander, the company's strategic development director was in India to announce the Percept deal. Business Standard caught up with him for his views on the out-of-home ad market.

Why did Posterscape take so much time to enter a fast growing advertising market like India when it is already in China?

One cannot do everything at the same time. We've worked for some of the biggest names in the UK as well as globally. Despite Aegis having bought over the company, we serve non-Aegis clients as well. We have seven office in China.

What's reason behind Outdoor advertising's growing significance?

On one hand, people across the world are beginning to spend a greater part of their time out of home and in places such as offices, entertainment centres, theatres and leisure locales.

On the other hand, media is getting fragmented. These two reasons have made it difficult for advertisers to get wide coverage. Advertisers are beginning to realise that they can build on the out-of-home spending of consumers.

Additionally, the advertising industry is strengthening its research into consumer habits. So, out-of-home advertising has finally started assuming greater significance.

How have the Outdoor advertising media evolved?

If one considers the evolution of out-of-home advertising, I would say, it's a broad spectrum. Some countries continue to thrive on paper billboards alone while some use a combination of mediums.

Today one has mediums such as light boxes, and digital screens which are expensive. Like in the UK, paper billboards could disappear completely within the next 10 years; that may not happen in India.

How can one measure the Return on Investment (ROI) on out-of-home advertising?

Over the years, Posterscope has developed several tools by which we can measure the ROI, to a large extent. For example, we have the POSTAR (Posterscope Audience Research) that measures the aggregate number of people who pass a particular passage. At times we do travel surveys to study the travel habits of people.

These give us an idea of the roads and areas consumers are likely to pass. Likewise, we have a tool called Orbit that helps clients be aware of how other media work with out-of-home to create the effective communication message. Thus, we have invested a lot in industry research that helps in measuring ROI.

How do you see yourself expanding in India and globally?

We are not looking at any acquisitions in India. We are going for strong organic growth in view of our partnership with the Percept Group. Globally, we are looking at entering newer markets. We are looking at Europe, US and Japan and Korea as well.

What trends is one likely to see in Outdoor advertising?

One would see more digital and street furniture over the years.