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1 Introduction :- Advertising

Advertising, generally speaking, is the promotion of goods, services,

companies and ideas, usually performed by an identified sponsor. Marketers see
advertising as part of an overall promotional strategy. Other components of the
promotional mix include publicity, public relations, personal selling, and sales
promotion.

Advertising involves the process where in a massage is designed so as to

promote a product, a thought, an idea or even a service. The concept of advertising
has assumed a dynamic form with the use of the various mediums of communication.
From the newspaper, magazines, posters, neon and fluorescent signboards, billboards
to the commercial on TV, laser shows to inflated high-rise figures and objects,
advertising has come a long way. The work is formidable as it spearheads a process
intended to attract, modify, change and influences public opinion.

From the local business to multinational firm and all need to advertise. While
politicians, social organizations, government special groups need to advertise their
motto, national airlines, auto mobile manufactures, food and consumer goods
manufacturers have to reach the consumer. Specialist products and services are often
advertised through trade magazines and exhibitions. Lately mail-shots, handbill
circulation, special offers have become very popular. There are still other ways of
advertising. There are window displays, display on telephone directories, transit sign
on buses, lamp posters, banners, etc. Advertising through the electronic media has
been perhaps the most popular medium.

Advertising, as an effective medium, uses a variety of techniques to create

effective advertisements. A basic appeal is at the heart of advertising. Slogans and
product characters are created to catch the attention of the viewers. Most winning
advertisements would encompass factual information with emotional appeal. The
advertising industry has three major sectors.

 Business or organization which wishes to advertise,

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  Media which provides the medium for advertising and
 Ad-agency which creates the ad to suit the need of the firm.

Ad agencies vary in the size and turnover. Nevertheless the process of

creating an ad remains the same. The annual expenditure on the advertising has been
to the tune of Rs 8000 crores and the figure could be higher. USA has projected
media spending on advertising on the net to approximately $7700 by the turn of the
century. The scope for advertising professionals certainly shows an upward trend.

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1.2 Industry Snapshot

According the Advertising Age's 2002 Agency Report, the world's six largest
advertising agencies accounted for over 65 percent of $39.28 billion spent on
advertising worldwide in 2001. But the advertising industry has suffered during the
first years of the 2000s. The economy decline prior to and exacerbated by the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001 has been sustained by the ongoing conflict with Iraq.
As an indicator of the softened demand for advertising services, advertising agency
employment fell to just over 180,000 in December 2002, down from an average
employment of 194,400 in 2001 and 182,400 in 2002, representing the largest decline
since 1991.

Advertising agencies are primarily responsible for two functions. The first is
the production of advertising materials in the form of written copy, art, graphics,
audio, and video. The second is the strategic placement of the finished creative
product in various media outlets, such as periodicals, newspapers, radio, and
television.

Advertising agencies can be found throughout the United States, with the
greatest percentage located in large cities. Many have headquarters in New York and
field offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Detroit, and other
major areas of commerce in order to be close to clients.

Although the larger agencies are more frequently mentioned in the media and
in trade publications, the industry is actually predominately comprised of smaller
agencies, many with only one or two principals. Industry observers credit lower
overhead, diversified services, willingness to accommodate change, and an
entrepreneurial attitude for the success of smaller, boutique agencies.

As many clients have begun to focus on a variety of forms of marketing

communications, advertising agencies have had to look beyond conventional media-
based advertising. Advertising budgets reflect this shift, with additional dollars being
earmarked for point-of-sale promotions, public relations, and a major entry into the
media mix—the Internet. Changing demographics and a savvy American consumer
were the driving forces behind these alternative forms of marketing communications.
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 Some industry leaders have projected that advertising agencies will need to
augment their primary line of work and change their longstanding compensation
system based on commissions. Realizing the need for "integrated marketing services,"
many agencies have responded by offering public relations, direct mail, promotional,
and Internet services.

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1.3 Nature of the Industry

Firms in the advertising and public relations services industry prepare

advertisements for other companies and organizations and design campaigns to
promote the interests and image of their clients. This industry also includes media
representatives—firms that sell advertising space for publications, radio, television,
and the Internet; display advertisers—businesses engaged in creating and designing
public display ads for use in shopping malls, on billboards, or in similar media; and
direct mail advertisers. A firm that purchases advertising time (or space) from media
outlets, thereafter reselling it to advertising agencies or individual companies directly,
is considered a media buying agency. Divisions of companies that produce and place
their own advertising are not considered part of this industry.

Most advertising firms specialize in a particular market niche. Some

companies produce and solicit outdoor advertising, such as billboards and electric
displays. Others place ads in buses, subways, taxis, airports, and bus terminals. A
small number of firms produce aerial advertising, while others distribute circulars,
handbills, and free samples.

Groups within agencies have been created to serve their clients’ electronic
advertising needs on the Internet. Online advertisements link users to a company’s or
product’s Web site, where information such as new product announcements, contests,
and product catalogs appears, and from which purchases may be made.

Some firms are not involved in the creation of ads at all; instead, they sell
advertising time or space on radio and television stations or in publications. Because
these firms do not produce advertising, their staffs are mostly sales workers.

Companies often look to advertising as a way of boosting sales by increasing

the public’s exposure to a product or service. Most companies do not have the staff
with the necessary skills or experience to create effective advertisements;
furthermore, many advertising campaigns are temporary, so employers would have
difficulty maintaining their own advertising staff. Instead, companies commonly

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solicit bids from ad agencies to develop advertising for them. Next, ad agencies
offering their services to the company often make presentations. After winning an
account, various departments within an agency—such as creative, production, media,
and research—work together to meet the client’s goal of increasing sales.

Widespread public relations services firms can influence how businesses,

governments, and institutions make decisions. Often working behind the scenes, these
firms have a variety of functions. In general, firms in public relations services advise
and implement public exposure strategies. Firms in public relations services offer one
or more resources that clients cannot provide themselves. Usually this resource is
expertise in the form of knowledge, experience, special skills, or creativity; but
sometimes the resource is time or personnel that the client cannot spare. Clients of
public relations firms include all types of businesses, institutions, trades, and public
interest groups, and even high-profile individuals. Clients are large and small for-
profit firms in the private sector; State, local, or Federal Governments; hospitals,
universities, unions, and trade groups; and foreign governments or businesses.

In an effort to attract and maintain clients, advertising and public relations

services agencies are diversifying their services, offering advertising as well as public
relations, sales, marketing, and interactive media services. Advertising and public
relations service firms have found that highly creative work is particularly suitable for
their services, resulting in a better product and increasing their clients' profitability.

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1.4 Profile of major advertising mediums

MEDIUM ADVANTAGES LIMITATIONS

Newspapers Flexibility; timeliness; good local Short life; poor reproduction

market coverage; broad acceptance; quality; small pass along
high believability. audience.

Television Combines sight, sound and motion; High absolute cost, high
appealing to the senses; high clutter, fleeting exposure, less
attention; high reach. audience selectivity

Direct mail Audience selectivity, flexibility, no Relatively high cost, junk mail
ad competition within the same image.
medium, personalization.

Radio Mass use, high geographical and Audio presentation only; lower
demographic selectivity; low cost. attention than television; non
standardized rate structure;
fleeting exposure.

Magazines High geographical and demographic Long ad purchase lead time;

selectivity; credibility and prestige; some waste circulation; no
high quality reproduction, long life; guarantee of position.
good pass-along readership.

Outdoor Flexibility; high repeat exposure; low Limited audience selectivity;

cost; low competition. creative limitation.

Brouchers Flexibility; full control; can Overproduction could lead to

dramatize message. run away costs.

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2.1 Introduction – Out – Of -Home

The term "out-of-home" media refers

to all forms of advertising seen outside
the home that target consumer
audiences. Outdoor advertising
includes everything from the large
freeway type billboards to airport
displays, to mall kiosks to painted
building walls, to surface street poster
panels to airplane banners to
subway/train and platform advertising
to buses and bus shelters. Everything
and anything used for advertising out-
of-the-home.

Outdoor is a comprehensive mix of

effective media delivery mechanisms that reach people in their cars or on subways, in
airports and malls or in any number of growing outdoor media settings. Outdoor is
roadside, outside and inside, above and below ground and on the move.

Outdoor reach people on-the-go and offers extremely targeted messaging designed to
intercept consumers, wherever they go in an urban market or on suburban highways.
Combining traditional billboards with other newer forms of outdoor media products
can make a tremendous impact improving reach, frequency and overall awareness in
one cohesive media package.

Outdoor is more than just billboards! Most advertisers look to create product
recognition and allegiance in the market as part of their marketing strategy.

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The use of a brand icon in outdoor creative has been found to make an ad 40% more
memorable than an ad without a brand icon and if your goal is to turn your product or
service into a brand no other medium can do this as cost effectively as Outdoor.
Outdoor can brand, create and maintain awareness, and can reach and impact your
target market in a way that no other medium can.

Outdoor is the most universal of all advertising media, exposed to virtually everyone
who goes out of the house to work, shop or play. Outdoor provides broad, fast market
reach. Because of its continuous presence, outdoor is capable of producing frequency
levels unmatched by any other medium.

You can replace your outdoor advertising in locations reaching everyone coming into
or leaving your specific market area. You can pinpoint your prime marketing areas
exactly. Outdoor advertising's large physical characteristics create greater visual
impact on your audience. Outdoor is big, bold and colorful.

Outdoor advertising is the final reminder of your product or service; it's the point of
sell before the point-of-sale. Outdoor advertising bridges the gap between the in-
home message and the out-of-home purchase.

Simple, powerful and innovative outdoor advertising can jump start the life of a new
product or service create awareness and interest your offering, influence your target
markets purchase decision or build brands equity. Outdoor advertising is defined as
any sign that publicly promotes a product or a service.

This medium has accustomed to be known as larger than life medium. Outdoor
advertising like posters, hoardings etc… talk to large numbers of people at the same
time. Today outdoor advertising is everywhere, no medium puts advertising message
before one eyes so constantly, in so many unexpected places and unusual ways.

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When Perk was launched in the late 90’s it bombarded the hoardings with Preity
Zinta saying “ Kabhi bhi Kahi bhi” so is the today’s scenario of outdoor advertising it
is actually there everywhere.

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 also 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 an interest in outdoor advertising.

Outdoor advertising encompasses a large variety of tools, vehicles as they are called
in advertising parlance. Although billboards are the first ones that come to mind,
there is a lot more to this medium of communication than these large format visual
arresters. A brief outline of some of the commonly used vehicles in outdoor
advertising. From chiseling messages on stone in the ancient times to state-of-the-art
billboards and interactive displays, outdoor advertising has a come a long way. The
fifteenth century invention of the printing press saw the origin of bill posting in
Europe in the 1500s. And with the advent of lithography, in the nineteenth century,
creativity in advertising took off. In fact the word billboard has its origins in the late
nineteenth century practice of posting bills on wooden boards. Today, outdoor
advertising covers a vast number of 'vehicles'. In addition to the billboard, mobile
advertising, in-store displays, and displays in airports, sports arenas, and transit

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shelters; scrollers, translites, signages, etc. also come under this umbrella. Outdoor
Advertising is so extensively used for the simple reason that it works.

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2.2 History of Out – Of- Home Advertising

Outdoor advertising can trace its lineage back to the earliest civilizations. Thousands
of years ago, the Egyptians employed a tall stone obelisk to publicize laws and
treaties. While formats have certainly changed and as advertising ideas have evolved,
outdoor is still here.

One of the first known methods of advertising was an outdoor display, usually an
eye-catching sign painted on the wall of a building. Archaeologists have uncovered
many such signs, notably in the ruins of ancient Rome and Pompeii. An outdoor
advertisement excavated in Rome offers property for rent, and one found painted on a
wall in Pompeii calls the attention of travelers to a tavern situated in another town.

In India, Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BC had utilized the medium of outdoor
Advertising for communicating government policies and for propagating Buddhism
as is evident from his rock edits.

In regards to use of outdoor media for commercial advertising in ancient times, a

bright trader in order to promote his sales would scribe the name of the products he
was selling and nail the messages on his shop front, an innkeeper would hang his
shingles outside the door of his inn, announcing the availability of rooms and stable
facilitates, a black smith would adorn the entrance of the lane leading to his smithy
with the rim of a hoarse carriage wheel or a horseshoe or such others of his wares as
would attract the attention of the passerby. These gimmicks, tricks or eye catching
devices resorted to by the traders in ancient times can be truly termed as the
forerunners of modern outdoor advertising.

The earliest form of Outdoor Advertising is perhaps between 15th and 17th century
when the Church and the State would affix posters on doors of churches to make
announcements and proclamations.

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According to historian Frank Presbrey the first hoarding for commercial advertising
appeared around 1740 when a London based textile merchant secured permission
from the city council to position his shop’s advertisement bill next to the official
decrees at a fee-, which was the first established fee for making proclamations.

Other forms of advertising media have always resorted to outdoor to promote

themselves. Presses, Theatre, Cinema, Television do not regard outdoor as a
competitor: even if they are over-whelmed by the inherent advantage of outdoor
advertising and use it to reach a mass transit populace. Outdoor advertising grew
significantly with the growth of cars and improvements of roads.

Thus, “Maximum meaning, minimum means” captures the essence and the
penetration of Outdoor Advertising. Outdoor is old yet new, it is the oldest medium
yet as we are into the new millennium arguably the most dynamic. It is primitive and
yet sophisticated.

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2.3 Importance of Out – Of – Home Advertising in Media Mix –

 People spend more time in their vehicle than they do to read the paper and
watch the news.

 Outdoor advertising has a lower cost per thousand than any other type of
advertising. Outdoor ads cost 80% less than television commercials, 60% less
than newspaper ads, and 50% less than radio ads.

 Ads on billboards are free to consumers; you do not have to buy a magazine,
cable television, or a newspaper to see your advertisement.

 Outdoor advertising does not interrupt consumers in any way. There's no

obnoxious sound, smell or other type of negative attention grabber.
Billboards are noticed because of their messages, bright bold colors and
creative graphics.

 Outdoor advertising allows you to reach more people faster and easier than
any other type of media.

 Outdoor advertising has a larger audience than any other type of advertising.
People are driving further and further every day.
 Outdoor advertising is the only type of media that has constant exposure. No
other type of advertising allows your message to be displayed 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
 Repetition is extremely helpful when you are trying to increase your product
awareness, or when you simply want to get your message across to millions of
people. This task can easily be accomplished with billboard campaigns.
 Outdoor advertising help increase your products awareness, and knowledge
which also increases your sales and profits.
 Outdoor advertising makes it extremely easy to target, or not to target, a
specific market.

Thus, all this proves that in today's fragmented media world, outdoor advertising is
the one answer to target mass audiences effectively. With brands fighting for recall
advertisers are committing larger budgets to the medium each year in order to deliver

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high impact displays in busy town and city centers throughout the world. As a result,
outdoor media commands an ever-growing share of all ads spend.

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2.4 Types of Outdoor Advertising

 Hoardings
 Billboards
 Posters
 Neon Signs

 Street Furniture: -
o Bus Shelters
o Bus Benches
o News stands and news racks
o Kiosks
o Public Telephones
o In-Stores

 Transit: -
 Buses
 Subways and rails
 Airports
 Truck sides
 Taxis

 Alternative Media: -
o Stadiums
o Airborne
o Recreational resorts
o Parking places
o Petrol pumps
o Mobile bill boards

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 Hoardings :- A Growing Trend.

With the increasing clutter in the print and the audio-visual medium, along with the
spiraling costs, advertisers are now opting to go out into the open. In the past few
years’ hoardings have become an important part of media-mix. The cost effective
medium is ideal for new launches, short term campaigns (announcing rebate, bonus
etc.), teaser campaign, impulse purchase products (soft drinks, confectioneries) and
local campaigns considered to be a reminder medium, it reinforces brands with the
arrival of high-tech innovations, hoarding are now drawing more attention than even
before. It is the form of outdoor advertising, which is maximally used by the

advertiser. It is designed to accommodate sales messages printed by the advertiser.

Hoardings are conventional ways of advertising, large hoardings around
the streets gather attention of the passerby, and digital printing has given
a new dimension to hoarding advertising.

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 today

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encompasses a whole gamut of vehicles, but hoardings remain unassailably number
one.

The hoarding comprises a PVC skin stretched across its frame and backlit by dozens
of tube lights inside the box. The original artwork is scanned on a computer,
converted into digital codes that then control the airbrushes that actually paint the
advertisement on the PVC skin.

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
various sizes. 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
customization 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 customization 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. 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

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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.

Billboards - Remain The Cornerstone Of Outdoor Media

Outdoor Advertising is mostly billboard advertising. The first use of this advertising
was in promoting theatrical programmes. The playbill was pasted outside the theatre,
so that passerby could see it. This was done to promote attendance at these theatrical
performances, and was no doubt a primitive form of advertising; but it is in existence
even today. The “bills” were pasted on walls, fences or on boards around the town.
The word billboard has its origin in the playbill posted outside the theatre. After
automobiles came in and the road network became increasingly extensive, the outside
poster at the roadside became a useful medium for advertising. The word poster is
used to convey an advertising message, and it is posted on a structure built for that
purpose. The original poster was a sheet of paper, 28 inches by 42 inches. Several
such “one-sheets” could be combined to make larger posters to fit different frames.
The most popular size is 24-sheet poster. This is the size of a structure for which 24
individual sheets of the above-mentioned size are required to fill the board. Now,
with the modern printing press, bigger size sheets can be printed. The same space can
now be filled say, with only 10 sheets; but we still call this size a 24-sheet poster. A
24-sheet poster has a copy area, which is 104 inches high and 234 inches long. A 30-
sheet poster has also acquired a wide acceptance nowadays providing a copy area of
115 inches by 259 inches.

The bigger posters, called bleed posters, of size 125 inches by 272 inches, have also
gained popularity. Poster panels may be illuminated or regular. When night traffic is
dense in metropolitan areas, there is a need for illuminating the posters.

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Painted boards constitute another major outdoor advertising. Instead of printing on
sheets of paper, the message is painted. This is very important; particularly when the
billboard is exposed to rains and is likely to get spoiled soon. Of the outdoor boards,
which have a longer life span, the painted poster is the most acceptable.

Billboard formats offer high-impact, strategic positioning and market-to-market

coverage with an unprecedented means of reaching today's highly mobile consumer
audience. But that's not all. Billboards can deliver on so many levels:

 Clean eye-popping exposure

24/7
 Clutter free messages in a
uniquely customized
environment
 Desirable suburban coverage
filling gaps left by other
media

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Posters

Posters are of great value in developing countries like India with a great deal of
diversity of languages and problem of illiteracy. Posters are a part of commercial art
used most extensively in India to advertise feature films. It is visual medium par
excellence most of times. Even when words are used they are pithy.

The Bombay Municipality has used this medium effectively for social education
campaigns like ‘Save Water’ and ‘ Clean Bombay – Green Bombay’.

Business organizations too have gone in for expensive ad campaigns using the poster
medium. The drawback of this Outdoor medium is that posters can easily be defaced
or torn off; moreover, they are only seen at glance, and rarely read fully.

Mostly posters remain in position for a period of time say several weeks. We,
therefore, say that they enjoy 24-hour exposure and long life. The fact is that audience
gets only a fraction of a second to view the advertisement. But this is compensated by
repetition of viewing. The repetition is ideal for sinking the name or registering a
slogan or sales point or pack design in the mind of the audience. The task of the
poster is though simple but is an insistent one.

Posters communicate with a large number of people at the same time. Coverage could
be according to our choice. It is a real mass medium. It gives exposure to one and all.
They may be on their way to office, work, play, shop and so on. Its message delivery
is dependent upon the passer-by traffic. It acts as an impulse-trigger.

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Neon signs

They are attractive form of advertising mainly for the cities, which have a nightlife,
eg. In a city like Mumbai neon signs are an important medium as the nightlife is very
busy. These electronic signs use computerized lighting systems that are eye catching
and effective. Such bulletins are more expensive than posters and attract greater
attention. The cost of producing and maintaining such electronic displays is
enormous, and therefore can be used only by big advertisers.

Globally, Neons have proved to be more effective more than any other form of onsite
advertising. No other light source can match its brilliance and intensity, which is
specific and does not spread. Typically, a neon sign with 5” tall letters can be read
approximately 200 ft away or across a 4-lane highway. It is estimated that in India,
neon constitutes 15 percent of the total electric sign sales, with a growth rate of 10
percent. It comes to 5 percent of the total money spent on outdoor advertising.
Television programmes are also not far behind to make use of the bright illumination
of neons. The popular ‘Movers & Shakers’ show on Sony TV has its logo in neon in
the backdrop.

If you are in the business of selling, the first thing you need to work on is your sign.
Without it your chances of getting noticed fall dramatically. You may have the best
merchandise, the finest store, but if you can’t attract customers, you will soon be
shutting down.

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That’s really the baseline for the sign business around the world. Today, the choices
are huge-digital prints, backlits, frontlits, acrylic, vinyl and neons. Except for the last
one, all the rest are static signs. The neon, in contrast, is a living sign which winks
and blinks invitingly at customers. A neon has an almost mesmerizing effect-often
you cannot take your eyes off it waiting for its colours to change or gain new designs.
During the middle of the 20th century, neon signs turned North America’s roadside
into a luminous wonderland. The most compelling signs were figural: imaginative,
cartoon drawings in light. Most Indian shopkeepers agree that a neon attracts more
customers. Sometimes it becomes a question of not wanting to be the only shop on
the street, which doesn’t have a neon!

Today neons are also pitched against a giant and thriving digital printing industry,
with new techniques and improved effects.

The options in neon are many, it all depends on the creativity of the sign maker.
The simplest is the Skeletal Neon, which is really just the neon tubing, which looks as
though the sign has been written in running hand. This is very fashionable in
developed markets where the skill of the sign maker and the materials used are of the
highest quality.

Then there is the single line tubing, which runs on acrylic cutouts. This doubles as a
day sign, and neon sign makers contend that it makes the letters look bigger. The
reverse also works – acrylic letters with neon
behind them, which gives a backlit effect.

The most expensive is the concentric circles

or parallel lines neons, which have a flasher
inside. What you get are ever-changing lines,
and each line needs a transformer, so it
becomes expensive.

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Surprisingly, the technology behind neon sign making has not changed much over the
last half century. It’s the same gases – neon and argon that are still being used. They
have remained the same from the time they were invented. Neons, are a saturated
science – there is very little new stuff that can be done with. The procedure has
remained the same for the last few decades. High maintenance and higher electricity
bills are the two biggest fears, which put off potential buyers

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Street furniture

The Increasing Prestige Of Street Furniture

Street furniture advertising is versatile. It can effectively target population segments

or be used to reach a broad-based marketplace. Formats range from simple to
interactive, locations vary from dense urban centers to suburban roadways.

Because many street furniture displays are located near shopping and commerce
centers, these outdoor products provide a last reminder for consumer’s just moments
before a potential purchase decision is made. For this reason, street furniture
advertising is ideal for generating high awareness and brand recognition near a point-
of-purchase.

Various Types of Street Furniture:-

Station and shelter posters: Mostly station posters are used for film advertising. They
are also effectively used for local advertising by retailers, coaching classes, opticians
and even astrology; construction companies and estate brokers.

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Advertising on bus shelters is now gaining popularity as it easily grabs attention of
the passerby & of the people waiting for the bus.

ATM advertising : When there is no interaction, the monitor carries an ad of the bank
or the portfolio of a product.

Zip phones: After dialing the number while the call is on, the ad keeps on flashing on
the screen.

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Transit advertising

Reaching Consumers On The Go With Transit

Displays that reach people traveling - by plane, train or automobile, bus or cab, and
on foot, transit products offer extremely targeted outdoor messaging solutions
designed to reach target consumers,
whether moving or being moved. In
fact, given the nature of transit products,
they are visible at all hours, with
particular strength during rush hour.
Take your pick of the product pack -
mix and match. Combining transit
products can make a tremendous impact
improving: reach, frequency and overall impact in one cohesive media package.

Transit Advertising or advertisements on wheels occupies a major segment of

Outdoor Advertising all over the world. It is a very effective medium for showcasing
product related advertisements as well as public service messages.

Do you want to revolutionize how you reach potential customers, and maximize your
advertising investment? If so, transit advertising is the solution. Here's why:

You can't zap it. You can't ignore it. Transit advertising can't be turned off like
television, tuned out like radio, or discarded like newspaper and magazines. Instead, it
puts your message at eye-level in front of thousands of consumers - all day, every day
- and it demands attention. What's more, it's not cluttered up with dozens of
competing messages in the same space, like other commercial media. Transit
advertising costs less than television, radio, newspaper or billboards.

Transit vehicles go where people go: where they live, work, shop and play. And
wherever those vehicles travel, advertising goes with them. They travel through busy
downtown areas and are essential to reach major educational institutions, healthcare

27
centers, financial centers and entertainment venues. They give you coverage in
upscale suburban communities, major malls and retail centers. You can reach the key
drive-time audience of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, as transit routes cover nearly
all major streets and highways. Transit ads stimulate immediate recognition of who
you are, what you have to offer and where to find you. The larger-than-life impact
makes your business appear larger than life, too, and builds exceptional recall when
people are seeking your product or service. Transit ads complement and reinforce
your overall advertising program. All kinds of businesses have discovered the
benefits of transit advertising, like increased name recognition and top-of-mind
awareness. It's a proven and powerful vehicle for reaching potential customers - again
and again. Transit gets results!

Benefits Of Transit Advertising:

 Greater Reach and frequency.
 Reaching a Captive Audience.
 Creates top-of-mind awareness.
 Building Long-Term Name Recognition.
 Reaching People All Day...Every Day.
 Fits into virtually any advertising campaign.
 Inexpensive.

Various Types of Transit Advertising

Interior cards or car cards: Buses and subways usually have overhead and wall
mountings for advertising. Local trains also have advertising space on their walls.
These are especially useful when catering for a specific target groups such as women.
Unlike the posters which cannot be read at length commuters in trains have ample of
time to reach the ad; and therefore a longer ad can also be used.

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Exterior posters: Buses also have display ads on the outside space. BEST buses rent
out the entire bus that can be attractively painted with the ad message.
In city like Bombay where local trains operate these entire trains are also painted with
a particular ad.

Bus ticket: Innovative media planners also use bus tickets to advertise their products.
They are less expensive and have a higher possibility of being read by commuters
through the message is obviously very brief.

Air balloons: Balloon advertising is a novel way of promoting products customized to

a product shape, which could be anything from cars to cans upto 50 feet high. as they
are cheaper than hoardings & could be used anywhere.

Wall painting: It is mainly used in rural areas where other advertising cannot reach
and it one of the cheap method also. It is even found in cities but to a very small.

Mobile Display Vehicles: This new concept of MDV is certainly more effective in
this field than any other means because it attracts almost every commuters/passerby
when it moves on roads whereas the earlier ideas of hoarding was stationery and only
limited people could see them. Moreover, the Mobile Vehicles can also be designed
as per the specifications given by over valued customers as per their requirements.
Apart from this the MDV is also very effective for Road Shows, which attracts people
now a days.

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A New Twist Is Alternative Outdoor Media

Beyond billboards, a whole new field of advertising formats has emerged to impact
consumers head-on during the course of daily activities. Originally developed to
bridge gaps in urban centers, the alternative outdoor products have today grown into a
sophisticated and viable billion-dollar business. The beauty of these ad forms is the
targeting they provide, and their synergy within micro markets.

Alternative outdoor media provides the impact of outdoors’ 'power of presence' with
the intimate messaging of print media. Alternative outdoor media can cover a market
far and wide or provide synergies with locations strategically placed around a town.
Use one specific form of alternative outdoor or go "hog wild" with multiple
executions. However it's done, alternative outdoor media is a cost efficient means to
promote a big brand with "round the clock presence" on a local level.

Thus, Outdoor advertising has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a
roadside poster. Not an afterthought to fund editorial content, outdoor advertising is
pure and unfettered - a proud beacon, beautifully rendering a product's benefits and
whereabouts. Outdoor offers a treasure trove of choices that suit every target, every
geography, and every strategy. Today outdoor offers a portfolio of settings and
frames that are custom built for every imaginable need a marketer might have. The
diversity and variety provides a marketer creative expression that knows no limits and
a geographic dispersion that offers both deep and wide market coverage.

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2.5 Process of Outdoor Advertising
The basic business unit of the outdoor industry is the local outdoor company, the
outdoor plant. Its stock in trade is the location it has leased or bought under local
zonal regulation permitting the erection of signs. Having, thus, acquired a place the
company then leases out the place to a company wanting to do an outdoor advertising
by painting or posting the advertisers message on the same. The contract is made
either weekly, monthly, or on half yearly basis. It is the responsibility of the local
outdoor company to maintain the ad in good condition during the life of the
advertiser’s contract.

After the signs are up, the advertising agency is notified. A representative of the
agency drives around to inspect the
signs (called riding a show) to make
sure that all boards are in proper
working order. The boards are
inspected regularly to make sure that
the traffic flow has not changed, that no
obstruction (such as foliage of a tree or
new construction etc.) impedes the
view of the sign, and if poster is used – then that the posters are not peeling, and all
flashing and lighting arrangements are working properly.

Also the plant operators may have its own art staff to supply creative services for
local advertisers; ad agencies usually do the creative work for national advertisers. It
has also been found that many big companies may have their own private advertising
department which works on the creative part and the plant operators only have to put
on these ads on their plants and maintain the same.

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2.6 Pros & Cons of Outdoor Advertising
The pros:-
 Accessibility : Outdoor carries the message 24 hours per day and cannot be
fast-forwarded, put aside, zapped, or turned off.
 Reach : For the same dollars, outdoor delivers a reach of 86.4 percent
compared with spot TV (76.5 percent), radio (72.3 percent), and newspaper
(72.2 percent) for the same target audience in the same city. The audience is
mostly young, educated, affluent, and mobile – an attractive target to many
national advertisers.
 Frequency : Nine out of 10 people reached with a 100 GRP showing receive
an average of 29 impressions each over a 30-day period.
 Geographic flexibility : Outdoor advertisers can place their advertising where
they want it nationally, regionally, or locally in more than 9,000 markets
across North America.
 Demographic flexibility : Messages can be concentrated in areas frequented or
traversed by young people, upper-income people, or people of specific ethnic
backgrounds. With computerization, its possible to characterize outdoor
audiences by age, sex, income, and lifestyle down to the block level.
 Cost : Outdoor offers the lowest cost per exposure of any major advertising
medium. Rates vary depending on market size and intensity, but the GRP
system makes cost comparisons possible from market to market.
 Impact : Because advertisers can build up GRPs very fast., outdoor is ideal
medium for those with a short, simple, and dogmatic message.
 Creative flexibility : Outdoor offers a large display and the spectacular
features of lights, animations, and brilliant color. New fiberoptics, giant video
screens, and backlit display technologies offer more creative options.
 Location : Outdoor can target consumers by activity, reaching shoppers on
their way to the store, businesspeople on their way to work, or travelers on
their way to the airport, thereby influencing shoppers just before they make a
purchase decision.

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The cons:-

 Fleeting Message : Customers pass quickly, so outdoor advertising must

intrude to be effective. The design and copy must tell a story briefly and
crisply, and the words must sell.
 Environmental influence : Outdoor messages are influenced by their
environment. Placement in a run-down area can detract from a products
image.
 Audience measurement : Audience demographics are difficult to measure.
Not every passerby sees or reads the ad, so some media buyers distrust
reach estimates.
 Control : Unlike print and broadcast ads, its hard to physically inspect
each outdoor poster panel.
 Availability of locations : Oudoor is so popular that demand now exceed
supply.
 Visual pollution : Some people object to outdoor advertising as visual
pollution. They have a negative reaction to advertisers who use it.

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3.1 Introduction to Media

Advertising is one of the integral elements of the marketing process, just as sales,
product design, promotion and customer service are. We might look at advertising as
the mass selling of a product. Where is advertising seen or heard? In the media. What
business is an advertising agency in? In the advertising creation and placement
business. What business is the media in? The advertising delivery business.

When people talk about the media, they are referring to the distributors of news and
entertainment content – television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet.
However, newspaper are not in the news business, magazines are not in the fashion
business, and broadcast and cable television are not in the entertainment business. All
of these media, as well as the other media – yellow pages and out-of-home – are
supported all or in part by advertising and are, therefore, in the advertising delivery
business. The media are dependent on advertising, and advertising, as an integral part
of a larger marketing system, is co-dependent on the media. Without the media to
reach large numbers of consumers with an ad or commercial, marketers would have
to go door to door and try to sell their goods one-on-one through personal selling or
consumers would have to wondering which sold the product they needed – both very
expensive undertakings. Advertising agencies would not exist if there were no media
to run the ads they created.

The reason marketers and advertisers are dependent on the media is because the
media are pervasive and popular with consumers (readers, viewers, listeners) and are
their link to the global village. People love and depend on their media – their favorite
television program, such as “Friends,” their favorite magazine, such as People, their
favorite country music radio station, or their favorite newspaper, such as The Wall
Street Journal. Because of this affection and dependency, the media are actually the
most powerful business in the country – more powerful than the industries,
celebrities, and politicians they cover, expose, and glorify.

34
It is because of this enormous power coupled with a perception that the media
emphasize negative news or sex and violence that people probably have such a low
opinion of the media. Americans seem to blame all the ills of society on the media.

The role of the media is to expose consumers to advertising, not to guarantee sales or
results to advertisers. The media are just that – a medium, a connection between
advertisers and consumers.

Finally, in spite of a love-hate relationship between the public and the media, or
perhaps because of it, the media is a profitable industry. Many of the great fortunes in
the world have been built in the media. Even if new products do not survive in the
marketplace, the media still receive the advertising dollars invested to introduce the
product, just as the media get the advertising revenue from losing political candidates.
The profit margins in the media are, as a rule, higher than in most other industries,
except for the software industry, perhaps. Top-rated radio and television stations in
major markets often have profit margins of 50 percent or greater. Newspapers in large
markets are usually monopolies or close to it because of joint operating agreements,
and profit margins often reach or exceed 30 percent. Popular national magazines
often have similarly high profit margins.

The reason for high profit margins is because in an advertising supported medium
such as radio, television, newspapers, magazines, and Interactive, the cost of adding
an additional ad has no or very low incremental costs involved. For example, in
television, the time for commercials is baked into most programming, so if a
commercial is not scheduled in a commercial pod, a promotion or public service
announcement will run. A television statement does not expand the programming
time if it does not have commercials to run. Thus, at a television station, it costs
nothing to add a commercial – there are no incremental costs involved. On the other
hand, if an automotive manufacturer sells a car, it has to build one with all of the
concomitant costs involved (labor, materials, transportation, etc.). Once a radio or

35
television station has sold enough advertising to cover its cost of operations and debt
payment, if any, all additional advertising sold is 100 percent profit.

In newspapers and magazines, which have an additional revenue stream, that of

subscriptions, once the cost of operating is recovered, the incremental cost of adding
a page of advertising is very low in comparison with the cost of an ad to an advertiser.

What this profitable economic model means for salespeople is that advertising
revenue is extremely profitable and, therefore, there is more money to distribute to
salespeople in the form of compensation than in less profitable industries. Media
salespeople are among the highest paid of any industry, including the advertising
industry.

36
3.2 Media Process

Once the advertising is created, the focus shifts to how best we can take it the people.
Who are the people we need to reach, how can we reach them, where and when can
we deliver our ads to them, how often do we need to reach them, and what will it cost
us to do so?

MEDIA
PROCESS

Media Media Media Media

Strategy Planning Buying Scheduling

 The Media Strategy

Media Strategy refers to a specific course of action with the media. It describes how
the media planner will achieve the stated media objectives. There are 4 strategic
decisions to be taken by the media planner:
 Which media will be used?
 How often each will be used?
 How much of each will be used?
 When will they be used?
The media planner has to take the following factors when developing a media
strategy:
 Scope of the target audience
 Consumer purchase patterns
 Mechanical considerations

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 The Media Planning
The Media Planning process starts with looking at what objectives the media plans
need to achieve, and what kind of media budgets are available to do so. The first step
in media planning i.e. to match the media with the target group. The better the match
of the target with the media, the less will be the money wasted on delivering the
messages to the consumers for whom the product was intended to. This is known as
“weighting”.

The second step in media planning process will be the selection of the “Media Mix”
or the most optimal combination of media. It is important for the media planner to
distinguish between media types, vehicles and media units.

 Media Buying
Media planning also involves allocating media budgets to media types. Budgets may
be allocated based on the importance of media types and/or geographic regions.
Geographic allocation usually marketing objectives.

REGION Media Budget (in %) BUDGET (in Rupess)

SOUTH 25% Rs. 50 lakhs

EAST 15% Rs. 30 lakhs

WEST 30% Rs. 60 lakhs

NORTH 10% Rs. 20 lakhs

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Media buying may be defined as the process of executing a schedule of desired media
weights for brands at a lowest possible cost. The media buying process can be divided
into 2 broad stages:
- Deciding what to buy
- Setting out to buy at the most competitive rates.

Specialized Media Services

With clients becoming particular about media buying rates, some agencies are
creating their own specialized media buying houses. Such agencies are termed
“AOR” (Agencies Of Record). JWT’s AOR is called FULCRUM, Lintas call it
INITIATIVE MEDIA, Mudra’s AOR is called OPTIMUM MEDIA SOLUTIONS,
and many such examples.

Agencies are now turning their attention towards independent media buying houses,
because these days satellite channels and print media are offering heavy discounts on
bulk buying. Two specialist independent networks are discussed below:
 MINDSHARE: This is an independent network of WPP group, the larges
agency conglomerate in the world. Mindshare entered the Indian market in
1996. it purchase media for its group agencies JWT, Contract, O&M and FCB
ULKA. It is surprising to know that Mindshare got its first client no the day it
opened its office. HLL purchased media worth 600 crore from Mindshare.
Today, its annual billings are 1500 crore.

 CARAT MEDIA: this is Europe’s leading media specialist. It entered into

India in 1998. Carat offers the Indian clients media consultancy, which
includes media strategy, research planning, buying, and media selection as a
total package of services. It purchases media for agencies like Mudra, Clarion,
and RK Swamy BBDO.

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 Media Scheduling
This is the final step in the media process (media plan). It refers to the timing of the
media insertions. A media schedule is usually prepared for the entire campaign
period, which is usually for a period of 6 months or 1 year. The following factors are
taken into consideration in preparing a media schedule:
 Seasonal patterns of the products (Monte Carlo advertises more in winters)
 Repurchase cycles (FMCG’s require more advertising)
 Product life cycle (a product in introductory stage requires more advertising)
 Competitor’s media schedule (Coca-Cola and Pepsi)

Different patterns of Media Scheduling:

 Continuous Advertising: This refers to advertising without breaks. Products

with short repurchase cycle that are purchased frequently are the examples. E.g.
HLL, Coca-Cola, Pepsi etc.
 Flighting: This is an intermittent pattern with gaps where no advertising is done.
This is a case for seasonal products, where funding is limited and the products
with a long repurchase cycle. E.g. CRY (Child Relief and You) cards and
Monte Carlo woolen wears.
 Pulsing: This is continuous advertising, which gets heavy during certain
periods. Seasonal items follow this pattern of advertising. E.g. Rasna (Rozana
and Utsav).
 Blinkering: This is strong advertising during periods with short gaps in between.
E.g. Eagle Diaries start advertising from September and stops advertising in
October and again go for strong advertising (bursts) in November and
December.

Thus the media planning is very complicated and involves a lot of expertise. Media
planners play a very crucial role in media budget decisions.

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3.3 The Media Mix

Media planning follows the adoption of one of the media strategies, which forms part
of the overall promotional strategy. A media plan is concerned with media selection –
what type of media should be used? Magazines? Newspapers? Television? Radio?
Outdoor? If magazines of what classes? General interest magazines, women’s
magazines, romance magazines, crime magazines, business magazines? If general
magazines, which specific ones – India Today, Frontline? If newspapers, in which
regions? If radio or television advertising is required, which radio and TV station
should be covered? Once the media selection is decided upon, the next logical step is
to determine the combination of “mix” of the media one must use. This will be
arrived at by considering the advertising company’s marketing objectives, its target
market, media characteristics, and it’s matching with the target market. Also, the
overall advertising budget does influence the nature of such mix, in addition to the
available gross audience. As an example, to achieve certain advertising objectives,
one may require to use a mix of 50 percent television, 35 percent magazine and 15
percent newspaper. However, more than one mix may fulfill the advertising
objectives, and yet be within the overall budgeted cost. But one should aim at a
balanced mix. It should not be heavily weighted in favor of either frequency or reach.

Some advertisers prefer to concentrate on one media type mix, whereas others like to
have widely varied media mix. While the former offers the advertiser an opportunity
to make a great impact on a specific market segment, the latter, being an assortment
of media, can deliver different messages about the same product to different market
segments. Furthermore, if an ad is released in a varied media mix having a varied
editorial environment, there is the probability that the ad message will not “wear out.”
“Wear out” refers to the time it takes for people to become bored with an ad or a
commercial. The varied media mix also increases the reach of the ad message because
no two media have entirely the same audience. A certain percentage of each
medium’s audience is not reached by any other medium.

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Commenting further on media mix, we may point out that those who are heavy
viewers of television are light readers of magazines, and vice-versa. When one
concentrates on advertising on television, one is achieving a greater impact on heavy
viewers and very little impact on light viewers. Thus, the impact is uneven. A media
mix that contains the component of advertising in magazines in addition to
advertising on television will level out the imbalance. However, by increasing the
number of media in a mix, the advertiser will have to increase his total budget.
Therefore, as said earlier, a balance has to be struck.

Two more concepts, namely, duplication and gross audience, are worth considering
now.
Duplication refers to the number of prospects who are reached by more than one of
the media in a mix. Many executives who read Business India, for example, also read
the Economic Times. These executives are counted in the circulation figures of both
the publications. Ideally, every advertiser would like to have an unduplicated reach
among its best prospects. But, actually, no two media have an “overlapped” audience.
A certain amount of duplication, therefore, is bound to occur. However, the objective
should be to select a mix with the minimum duplication; but at times this is
unavoidable, particularly when one desires to achieve other advertising objectives as
well.

Gross audience refers to the total number of people exposed to all the forms of
advertising used in a single campaign. This includes the audience for radio and
television programmes, outdoor and transit displays, circulation figures of various
publications, and the number of people who attend trade shows. While designing a
media mix, the advertiser should know the gross audience size offered by each
alternative campaign. This would help him to choose the mix that delivers the greatest
number of exposure alternatives.

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3.4 Outdoor v/s Other Media

There are some basic differences between outdoor advertising and advertising in
other media. Though we have highlighted some of them in the foregoing paragraphs,
outdoor advertising is literally out of door, i.e., it is out of the home or place of
business. Some authors have used the term out-of-home to distinguish this medium
from the rest of the media. They have indicated that out-of-home media include
outdoor posters, painted bulletins, hoardings, neon signs, etc. whatever may be the
slight difference in the interpretation, all outdoor ads have no editorial vehicle to
carry the messages. The viewer has to incur no expenditure, nor has he to make any
effort to see an outdoor advertising, whereas this is not so with other media. An ad
message is not brought to the audience; it is the audience who go to the message,
though they view it in the course of their other activities. Outdoor ads offer repeat
opportunities for looking at the ad message, either at the same place or on an identical
billboard at another location. In the USA, Outdoor Advertising Association of
America (OAAA), which has established certain standards on size, design and
method of the construction of these billboards. Only such billboards are qualified as
outdoor media. Roadside and on premises devices, which are not of standard sizes
and/or designs, are not classified strictly as outdoor ads. They are referred to as signs.

43
44
Examples of Out –Of – Home Advertising

4.1 Amul and its hoardings…

The year was 1966. When the legendary Sylvester daCunha was approached by the
National Dairy Development Board, a cooperative network of dairies, little did he
know that a simple rhyme of an idea would spread itself out to a Guinness record for
the world’s longest-running outdoor ad campaign. And, perhaps, continues to be bred
as the only campaign in the world where the theme and style remain unchanged for
over 50 years. Back in those days, Amul’s main competitor was Polson — a much
older and popular brand that held a monopoly over branded butter in India.

Sylvie was given this seemingly uninteresting task of having to come up with an
advertisement for a brand of butter whose mouthful positioning statement read:
‘Processed from the purest milk under the most
hygienic conditions by a dairy co-operative in
Gujarat’. Before one could say ‘Amul’, it was his
‘butter half’ Nisha who suggested the tag line
‘Utterly Amul’, which he then smoothened and
spread out to ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious’. The
strength of this tagline is that it has penetrated almost
every Indian urban household across socio-economic
strata, for over half a century.

Though the real strength of the Amul campaign lies in the fact that it doesn’t sell the
product directly, but places the brand inside the mind and the popular psyche and says
what the Indian mind is thinking.

To my mind, the very source of the golden glow around Amul’s utterly successful
campaign needs to be attributed to Dr Verghese Kurien who, undoubtedly, is among
the few lighthouses that dot the Indian ad-scape.

45
46
47
In Dr Kurien’s words, “I realise how wise a decision it was to give complete
freedom to the ad agency to do their job in a professional way. I never interfered with
their work and the result is before you. They have done an exemplary job.” Dr
Kurien, who am I tomaska-maaro you in this piece, but please take a bow.

Slice across to 2012, and five decades years later, the making of the campaign and its
social connect have been documented in a new polka-dotted bright book, Amul’s
India — which is essentially free-flowing and non-linear in its narrative, and has
diverse viewpoints, topics and illustrated examples, all contributing to this iconic
brand’s rich tapestry. Poignant vignettes creating a patchwork quilt of essays,
snippets and trivia by prominent writers, celebrities and the subjects of the hoardings
themselves.

Sylvie’s art director, Eustace Fernandes, originally illustrated what would turn out to
be an enduring icon: a chubby little moppet (of about six or seven) dressed in a red
and white polka-dotted frock and matching ribbon on her blue ponytail. InAmul’s
India, Alyque Padamsee sees her as the Barbie of India. He feels, not bringing her
into reality has made the little girl cute, sweet, naughty but never mean or evil, and
that’s the reason she is so loved by all.

Incidentally, Amul’s first hoarding was ‘Give us this day our daily bread: with Amul
Butter’. From the ’60s, the decades might have gone by in a blur, but the campaign
has always retained a crisp freshness.

Every ad has been a sly comment or observation on some news event or concern of
the day, be it a cricketing double century, Bollywood box-office hits, scandals
surrounding politicians, to even controversial diplomatic policies. Such topical
currency was not part of the original moppet idea and that’s exactly why the
campaign has continued to be such a success — because it kept up with the times and
wit and humour were integral ingredients. In Sylvie’s words, ‘The greatest thing
about Eustace’s girl is the round face that can be adapted to be anybody. With

48
Manmohan Singh, we can put a turban on her. It could be Indira Gandhi, with just a
white streak. So it was a supremely adaptable creation.’

Amul’s India is a delectable idea that was waiting to be lapped up. Credit goes to the
painstaking research — particularly collating and putting together archival creatives
of the milestone hoardings that have dotted this wonderful brand’s journey. It is a
celebration of enormous interest to any observer of contemporary India: a brand
manager, a management student or, perhaps, even a die-hard fan of the brand’s catchy
communication.

The book is a compilation of anecdotal contributions by many well-known

personalities. The main essay is by Santosh Desai and some of its celebrated
contributors include Amitabh Bachchan, Rajdeep Sardesai, Harsha Bhogle, Shobhaa
De, Alyque Padamsee and the ubiquitous Sylvester DaCunha himself — with their
spunky wit, inducing life to the topical illustrations that made us chuckle, laugh,
wonder and remember ever-so-fondly, all these years.

Santosh Desai takes up the onerous task of recording the various socio-political
milestones that shaped the trajectory of Amul’s billboards over each decade, and how
they impacted the common psyche. In his words, as the national picture got gloomier
in the ’70s, the hoardings sought out little islets of cheer and the tone, over the years,
has become edgier with sharper barbs.

The rather vocal Shobhaa De, well-known to zig while the world zags, finds a
feminist in the Amul girl who she believes is a creation of Nisha daCunha. She goes
on to elucidate how Amul has mocked at men, celebrated female achievements (at
best, brought them to the fore), and depicted the rapidly changing status of women.
For Shobhaa, any woman who has made it to the ubiquitous Amul hoarding was
saying something powerful about, well... being a woman.

In sum, Amul’s India is the travelogue of a little lovable girl’s journey, as she helped
Amul Butter win over an entire nation. It is a toast to the spirit of India and, much like
the pasteurised butter itself, requires to be spread across homes.

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Fascinatingly, much like its original intent of giving poor farmers the best returns for
their milk by eliminating middlemen, the profits from the sale of this book will be
used to honour deserving students under the Amul Vidyashree and Amul
Vidyabhushan Award schemes.

Please lay your hands on a copy of this reasonably priced, utterly wondrous book and
go ahead and spread some lovely yellow sunshine in someone’s life.

Rahul daCunha -the man behind the Amul campaign

on the hows and whys of Amul’s India: Based On 50
Years of Amul Advertising

Given that this is India’s longest-running ad campaign,

we wanted to do a book for a long time.

There were two key decisions that made the book what it
is: one was to not make the book just a history of the ad
campaign, but perceive it from various viewpoints like Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan’s
point of view on how we have covered the milestones in his life, seeing it from
Harsha Bhogle’s perspective on how we have covered sport or Santosh Desai’s
opinion on how we have shown India.

The second was to not go for 1,000 or 2,000 copies of a coffee table book, but to
come up with a mass seller. We wanted a book that everyone could afford to buy.
And that has what has happened. The book is so
reasonably priced (Rs 299) that people are buying it for
their relatives… for their NRI friends who have been away
from the country and haven’t been able to see the
hoardings over the years.... It’s become a book that
anybody can buy.

I have two favourite sections in the book: the first where

we have picked the best of Amul… the best of politics, of

50
films, of scams…. We have selected 221 hoardings from about 5,000 shortlisted ones.
And most of them have been chosen by those who have written the book. Like for the
sports section, Harsha Bhogle picked the ones that he really liked.

The second bit that I liked was the writings… my dad’s (Sylvester daCunha, the brain
behind the Amul campaign) because it reveals a part of Amul’s history that not many
know of. I also like Rajdeep Sardesai’s piece which I think is very heartfelt.

The book has struck a chord because the Amul campaign has always been everyone’s
campaign. Just the chance to see all the hoardings together in one place and the
opportunity to go back to it time and again is what is making people buy it.

50 years after it was first launched, Amul's sale figures have jumped from 1000
tones a year in 1966 to over
25,000 tones a year in 1997. No
other brand comes even close
to it. All because a thumb-sized
girl climbed on to the hoardings
and put a spell on the masses.

For 30 odd years Amul and its hoardings has managed to keep her fan following
intact. So much so that the ads are now ready to enter the Guinness Book of World
Records for being the longest running campaign ever. The ultimate compliment to the
butter came when a British company launched butter and called it Utterly Butterly,
last year.

It all began in 1966 when Sylvester daCunha, then the managing director of the
advertising agency, ASP, clinched the account for Amul butter. The butter, which had
been launched in 1945, had a staid, boring image, primarily because the earlier
advertising agency which was in charge of the account preferred to stick to routine,
corporate ads.

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 In India, food was something one couldn't
afford to fool around with. It had been taken too seriously, for too long. Sylvester
daCunha decided it was time for a change of image.

The year Sylvester daCunha took over the account, the country saw the birth of a
campaign whose charm has endured fickle public opinion, gimmickry and all else.

The Amul girl who lends herself so completely to Amul butter, created as a rival to
the Polson butter girl.

That October, lamp kiosks and the bus sites of the city were splashed with the moppet
on a horse. The baseline simply said, Thoroughbred, Utterly Butterly Delicious Amul.
It was a matter of just a few hours before the daCunha office was ringing with calls.
Not just adults, even children were calling up to say how much they had liked the ads.
"The response was phenomenal," recalls Sylvester daCunha. "We knew our campaign
was going to be successful."

In 1969, when the city first saw the beginning of the Hare Rama Hare Krishna
movement, Sylvester daCunha, Mohammad Khan and Usha Bandarkar, then the

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creative team working on the Amul account came up with a clincher -- 'Hurry Amul,
Hurry Hurry'. Bombay reacted to the ad with a fervour that was almost as devout as
the Iskon fever.

That was the first of the many topical ads that were in the offing. From then on Amul
began playing the role of a social observer. Over the years the campaign acquired that
all-important Amul touch.

From the Sixties to the Nineties, the Amul ads have come a long way. While most
people agree that the Amul ads were at their peak in the Eighties they still maintain
that the Amul ads continue to tease laughter out of them.

Where does Amul's magic actually lie? Many believe that the charm lies in the catchy
lines. That we laugh because the humour is what anybody would enjoy. They don't
pander to your nationality or certain sentiments. It is pure and simple, everyday fun.

Meanwhile, let's just raise a toast and smile along with the Amul girl...

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54
4.2 Aircel connects to Mumbaikars in the rains

Primesite, Mudra MAX’s out-of-home (OOH) solutions unit, has reinitiated a

campaign for GSM mobile service operator Aircel in Mumbai. An extension of the

‘Aircel Boat’ campaign that ran in 2010, this CSR activity for Aircel aims to reach

out to people during the rains.

Primesite, Mudra MAX’s out-of-home (OOH) solutions unit, has reinitiated a

campaign for GSM mobile service operator Aircel in Mumbai. An extension of the

‘Aircel Boat’ campaign that ran last year, this CSR activity for Aircel aims to reach

out to people during the rains.

As a part of the campaign, Primesite has put up boats on billboards and buoys at bus

queue shelters in low-lying areas prone to waterlogging during the monsoons. The

idea is to rescue people stranded in these areas in the event of heavy rainfall. The

message is ‘Aircel helps Mumbai to sail through its network’.

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Commenting on the campaign, Mandeep Malhotra, senior vice president of Mudra

MAX, said, “I am happy that like last year, this year too the Aircel campaign has left

an indelible impression in the minds of customers with its forceful and innovative

outdoor campaigns. We are now preparing for a few more notable and striking OOH

innovations for future brand campaigns of Aircel.”

Last year's campaign won awards at the Singapore Outdoor Advertising Asia ’10 and

also bagged two Golds at Media Abbys for Best Use of Outdoor & Special Events.

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58
 4.3 Outdoor Advertising Campaign for “L’Oreal Paris Fall Repair
3x”

 Profile of Product
L’Oréal Paris introduced their new L’Oréal Paris Fall Repair 3X range with brand
ambassador Sonam A. Kapoor.

Just when all your efforts to stop hair fall failed;L’Oréal Paris Fall Repair 3X range
steps in to save the day. This revolutionary anti-hair fall range has triple benefits that
include nourishing the root, restructuring the hair fiber and making hair grow
stronger.

The L’Oréal Paris Fall Repair 3X range consists of Arginine, which is vital for hair
growth. Advanced research by L’Oréal laboratories has revealed that without
Arginine, hair does not grow. Fall Repair 3X’s advanced formula with Arginine
improves micro-circulation and energizes the hair roots.

Sonam A. Kapoor greeted the media and consumers at the event and spoke about the
technological advances and benefits of using the L’Oréal Paris Fall
Repair 3Xproduct range. The actress also interacted and posed with the winners of
the Fall Repair 3X consumer contest held in association with Big Bazaar.

On the occasion, Sonam A. Kapoor- Brand ambassador, L’Oréal Paris said, “L’Oréal
Paris is an iconic brand that has always been synonymous with innovation, beauty,
glamour and care. All of us have faced hair fall problems in our life, Fall Repair 3X
comes as a pleasant surprise that promises to take care of your hair fall problem by
getting to the root of it and reducing hair fall by 90%.”

Talking about the range, Pankaj Sharma - Group Product Manager, L’Oréal Paris,
India, said, “Hair fall is the primary concern of Indian women today. We at L’Oréal
Paris strive to introduce new breakthrough products that are technologically

59
advanced. We are delighted to introduce the new L’Oréal Paris Fall Repair 3X range
which is the answer to every woman’s hair fall problem. This range is designed to
work from the roots and thereby helps reduce hair fall due to breakage by 90%.

The concern about hair fall is especially high among young women and we feel that
Sonam A. Kapoor is an icon who connects very well with the youth. We are very
happy to have her as the face of the brand. We also have a 360 degree marketing plan
to support the launch”
Objectives behind choosing Outdoors for L’oreal

 No advertising campaign is complete without outdoor advertising.

 It is tool which will attract maximum attention of on-by lookers be it billboard,
hoardings or transit advertising.
 Outdoor advertising will prove to be the most essential to make ad campaign
for speed successful.
 Outdoor will provide brand recall to customers while they out.
 Outdoor effectively used at point of purchase locations can generate effective
sales & in turn it can help to promote the product.
 Outdoor advertising will help to convey the product benefits much effectively
and efficiently & it targets all segments of consumers.
 It will stress on creating awareness about the product and its features.
 It will stress the importance of branded petrol & benefit to all car and bike
users.

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Notable Key features in the launch:-

Since the launch was done in phases TV advertisement & Print Ads would not be an
effective medium as these mediums are known for reach out to a masses of
population but this was not possible in this case as the product was not available
nationwide. TV and Print would be an expensive affair. So TV and Print will not give
a better impact.
Advertising through TV and not making product available would create a bad
impression for the Company. This will destroy the brand image of the product if
physical evidence does not prevail at the point of purchase.

The insufficient availability of the product at the time of launch is a major hindrance
in its promotion. So, Outdoors were attractive options available to the advertisers to
reach out to the people of that particular area where the product was available. So the
advertisements were done through Hoardings in and around the areas where young
crowd gets a huge exposure, which has the availability of Speed fuel. These
Hoardings were initializing sales at the point of purchase, which provided idea and
information about product feature of Speed conveyed through attractive pictures.

L’Oreal Paris dominates the outdoor landscape yet again, this time with diva Sonam
Kapoor. Milestone Brandcom an integrated Out-of-Home brand communications
agencies in India, brings the latest anti hairfall range by L’Oreal Paris out onto the
city streets of India.

L’Oreal Fall repair 3x is a new range of Hair

care products launched by L’Oreal Paris that
reduces hair fall caused due to breakage by
90%. Its unique formula is enriched with
Arginine which energizes the hair roots to
help repair hair from root to tip. The triple
anti hairfall action nourishes the hair root,

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restructures hair fibre and makes hair stronger. India was the first market in Asia to
witness the launch of this product as hair fall is the No. 1 concern of Indian women
across all age groups. The campaign objective was to highlight that the triple benefits
of L’Oreal Paris’s Fall repair shampoo with emphasis on its action on the hair roots.
The campaign targeted women who face problems of hair fall, between the age group
of 25 and 45, and therefore young and vivacious Sonam Kapoor was aptly chosen as
the brand ambassador of this revolutionary new launch.

The media mandate to Milestone Brandcom was to launch the brand amongst the vast
consumer segment in India with a big bang by capitalizing on the beautiful brand
visuals and a single minded message “Hairfall, Get to the root of it”. In view of these
objectives, we devised an all pervasive OOH media plan to tactfully target the TG –
mainly women by following their movement within a city –along arterial roads, key
junction’s, transit and congregation points right up to the last mile of purchase.

The media mix was an assortment of large format billboards and gantries to create
impact, bus shelters to build reach & frequency, pole kiosks to drive saliency and
mall media & female security panels to influence point of purchase. The bright and
bold colors of the creative, Sonam’s captivating visuals and the right media mix
helped create top of mind recall. The campaign was executed across 7 cities at about
520 total touch points said Imtiyaz Vilatra, Founder Member & Managing Partner at
Milestone Brandcom.

Custom shaped pole kiosks were used to drive salience and provide continuous
presence in key stretches, arterial routes & high traffic junctions across the city,
building maximum frequency & TOM awareness. The ordinary 3*6 rectangular
kiosks were converted into the shape of the Loreal bottles thereby assuring
dominance in select target areas. The creatively cut kiosks & the vibrant layouts
looked strikingly beautiful during day & night.

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To further dominate the city streets of Mumbai, Loreal Paris zones were created at
various key junctions across the city (Worli Naka, Cadell Road & Juhu). All the
media billboards, bus shelters & kiosks at these traffic junctions were taken up to
display L’Oreal Paris’s new launch thus ensuring a unique & premium positioning
befitting the brand. Pankaj Sharma, Group Product Manager at L’Oreal Paris
complimented Milestone Brandcom on their execution abilities and said he looked
forward to working with them again. He says “The OOH campaign was well planned
and executed. Milestone Brandcom leveraged the creative very well and created a
great impact. Our first consumers of Fall Repair do recall the message from the
Outdoor campaign. It was a flawless execution and gave us a good mileage at the
time of IPL hype”.

Campaign Period: 15 days

Start date: 23.03.2012
Innovations: Pole kiosk cut outs & cluster billboards for brand dominance
Cities Executed: Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkatta,
Ahmedabad

Total touch points: 520

Unique Brand Clusters were created at various arterial junctions:

All sites at Worli Naka junction were taken.

Juhu SNDT had kiosks, billboard and bus queue shelters at the same place…
Cadell Road on one single stretch we had abt 5 bus queue shelters all displaying
loreal…

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5.7 Outdoor Campaign of L’oreal

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5. Some Examples of Innovation in Out- Of – Home Advertising

Advertiser: Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited

Advert title: Laptop Hoarding
OOH Agency: MAPS, India

Media/Origin: OOH / Indian

Product Group: Computers and IT Related
Brand: MTS M-Blaze

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Media/Origin: OOH / Indian

Product Group: Media and Entertainment

Brand: Dainik Jagran

Advertiser: Dainik Jagran

Advert title: Nasha Mukt Punjab

OOH Agency: Jagran Engage, Ludhiana, India

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Media/Origin: OOH / Indian

Product Group: Others

Brand: BPTP

Advertiser: BPTP

Advert title(s): Independence Day

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Media/Origin: OOH / Indian
Product Group: Telecom
Brand: Tata DOCOMO

Advertiser: Tata Teleservices Limited

Advert title(s): Hoarding
OOH Agency: Milestone Brandcom, India

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Product Group: Computers and IT Related

Brand: MTS M-Blaze

Advertiser: Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited

Advert title(s): Laptop Hoarding

Creative Agency (Name, City, Country):

OOH Agency: MAPS, India

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6.Future of Outdoor Advertising

The size of the outdoor media industry in India is estimated to be about 11% of the
total ’05 media spends of Rs. 11,000 crores. Due to the fragmented nature of the
industry, there is no single audited figure of spends on outdoors.

In terms of potential, the Indian outdoor industry is bigger than that in U.K., Germany
and the U.S. where the market share is 5.2, 3.2 and less than 2 percent respectively.
Additionally, with printing & site level impact enhancing innovations gaining
importance, the outdoor industry offers tremendous potential for growth. Retail &
Multiplex Space are the newer applications for this media.

Outdoor advertising has traditionally lagged behind other media. This has made
outdoor planning and buying very subjective. But there are some profound changes
on the anvil…crystal gazing into the future of outdoors and attempting to answer the
direction the medium is predicted to go, the medium is bound to recast itself in the
years to come & become an increasingly potent media vehicle.

The cornerstone of this hypothesis is that outdoor will become an increasingly

important element of the media mix – most certainly for some new age categories like
telecom, automobiles – both 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers, Insurance, durables and this
will drive media spends to increase to 20% levels from the current 11%. These high
outdoor consuming categories will demand greater width & depth of outdoor
deliverables.

As affluence spreads into India’s hinterland, marketers will train their sights to find
focused and localized media to supplement visibility. As the market demand led
change surges ahead across markets large and small, the large towns will be the first
to fell the heat of market and media saturation & media inflation. This will throw up
interesting ‘localised’ opportunities for outdoor media practitioners in small and mid-

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size towns. Outdoors can lead this ‘localised’ media surge & attempt to match the
‘demand’ led footprint.

Today “outdoor” includes an enormous selection of media display products

(billboards, transit, street furniture, and alternative outdoor media). The status of
outdoor has improved as it is being repositioned from a limited, fragmented, price-
driven local medium to a powerful, cost-effective, high reach, synergy medium

Today the Indian advertising scenario is as unpredictable as the British Weather, You
never know what’s next but with little imagination, outdoor advertising is an ideal
medium for achieving local reach, frequency and continuity on a very limited budget.
As a national and global medium, outdoor advertising has achieved great success. In
today’s growing advertising industry each medium has created a place for itself. As
each medium offers something better or different than other medium may / may not
offer, outdoor carries the message 24 hours with good geographical and
demographical flexibility which helps break linguistic barriers and helps to create an
impact on the precise target group.

Today outdoor is so popular that demand now exceeds supply, but such hurdles
would definitely be overcomed by a whole new generation of buzzing advertisers,
who will find out new outdoor tools with guaranteed innovation. With the family
members working income levels increasing their purchasing power also increases.
Increase in education standards in the country means more people are responsive to
the advertising stimulus and hence there are greater needs of advertising. As regards
product lifecycle, it is obvious that in future also, firms will need to concentrate in
growth areas to achieve or maintain leadership position. Outdoor advertising is bound
to grow with the extension in the national highways. Due to increase in the number of
automobiles in use, the dispersion of population to the suburbs will lead to greater
mobility of the people. The more people travel, the more people are exposed to this
medium.

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Future of Indian advertising, if spoken about is definitely growing as technology and
right infrastructure of a country is directly related to each other.

We also have to accept the fact that Indoor advertising especially Television is
growing at a very rapid rate, but outdoor is going to definitely catch up, as today
Indian brands are going more and more local; India is a country with great diversity
in Culture from village to village so advertisers have to face a lot of linguistic
barriers. This need compared to all other mediums is best catered by outdoors.
Technologically too outdoors advertising has started to move from painted hoardings
to digitally Vinyl Printed Hoardings in the urban areas.

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6.1 Conclusion

In today's fragmented media world, outdoor advertising is the one answer to target
mass audiences effectively.

People of all backgrounds and nationalities are spending more hours each day out of
the home: commuting, working, shopping and socializing. This is particularly true of
young, mobile people who are traditionally hard to reach with other forms of
advertising. With brands fighting for recall advertisers are committing larger budgets
to this medium each year in order to deliver high impact displays in busy town and
city centers throughout the world.

Research has shown that outdoor advertising is one of the most cost effective and
wide-reaching forms of advertising available. Case studies have proven the
effectiveness of this medium, with its high levels of viewer retention and product
awareness. Outdoor advertising offers repetitive impact at a low cost. In comparison
to other advertising media, outdoor advertising delivers a lower cost per thousand of
viewers reached.

Outdoor advertising allows customers to target or pinpoint certain areas in which to

promote their products or services. Your prime marketing areas are focused upon or
new markets are cultivated. There is no waste of circulation as in printed media and
fringe areas of radio and TV coverage. As a matter of fact, TV, radio and newspaper
companies have become huge outdoor buyers - it appears the competition has even
realized the benefits of using outdoor.

This trend illustrates the effectiveness of the medium in meeting a variety of

communication needs. As a result, outdoor media commands an ever-growing share
of all ads spend.

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Bibliography & Webliograpy

Books
 Advertising management Concepts and Cases
by Manendra Mohan
 Advertising Management
by B. S. Rathor
 4 Ps Business & Marketing

Websites

 www.magindia.com
 www.ogilvyindia.com
 www.agencyfaqs.com
 www.adage.com
 www.milestonemedia.in
 www.aaaindia.org

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