WOO Asia Forum: Out of Home is on the way to recovery - but must try harder

During the opening of the virtual Asia Forum Dentsu APAC CEO and India chairman Ashish Bhasin pulled no punches when interviewing WOO President Tom Goddard.

 Bhasin talked about the recovery in Asia and acknowledged that it differed country by country - and for the Out of Home medium, he said, "So far, the medium has not played to its fullest potential."

For Bhasin, the two main issues holding OOH back in Asia are media owner consolidation (the lack of it) and audience measurement. He said he was still having the same discussions he had 20 years ago. "You can't be a proper industry if you can't be measured."

On consolidation, he said that OOH was finding moving forward tricky, particularly in digital, as the Asian market - China and India significantly - was highly fragmented with a consequent lack of investment. Even standard poster sizes were difficult to determine in some markets, he said.

"What they need to do is partner with national operators, so we have a business that's global and local. So far, this hasn't happened.  We've seen consolidation on the agency side but not among media owners. There's too much squabbling."

"Out of Home is bouncing back strongly from the pandemic, but if it's to compete effectively with digital in the long term, then it needs to go more digital too. That can only be achieved by consolidation and longer-term investment."

The top priority for everyone now is sustainability. Bhasin said Dentsu was "passionate" about sustainability, moving rapidly to zero carbon. But he acknowledged this was an issue for OOH media, too, with the need to move quickly to more eco-friendly methods of printing traditional posters and cleaner energy for digital. 

"Brands are demanding we do this," he said. "It's become a major issue but one where it's also possible to gain a clear commercial advantage."

A historic commercial advantage for OOH is creativity. "It's been called the last unfair competitive advantage," Bhasin says. "You can do a lot with a little. Just one hoarding on the Air India building on Nariman Point in Mumbai built their brand for decades. Just one billboard."

"Amul milk has built its brand solely on posters. On the other hand, globally, Coke speaks a universal language on OOH. 

"Creativity is OOH's core strength. We should be doing much more to promote it."

Click on the link for the full interview with Ashish Bhasin

https://www.worldooh.org/tom-goddard-interviews-ashish-bhasin