Guest Times: Monsoons, more reasons to be at Ambient locations

Come monsoons, the OOH industry starts witnessing a definite slowdown. Otherwise an integral part of media plans, the out-of-home medium gets “almost” omitted by marketers during the downpour season. Does this mean that the medium stops being effective altogether or is it that the consumer avoids consuming products and services during the rains?

Fact of the matter is consumers continue to do what they like the most – shopping, eating and watching movies. Basically the action this time moves to an ambient location. Let’s look at what happens at most of these spaces and what these locations do to entice consumers, but the moot question is does consumer spend slow down? Let’s look at the some known and some latent facts.

Grand Monsoon sale: The quintessential city congregation point; malls are the one stop shop for all your basic needs – food, clothes and entertainment. Almost every mall worth its name is on “Monsoon Sale” that drives consumers in hordes. The icing of these sales is “one day everything is at over 50% discount” attributing to notorious consumer flash floods. Interestingly, either by design or default no two malls’ sales clash with other. These malls use different media, including OOH to attract consumers. Monsoons do not see any drop in footfalls; these sales spike footfalls and consumer spends. Facades offer you even better OTS thanks to traffic snarls, branding options inside works even better due to higher dwell time. Right time to create experiential activity!

At theatres near you: Movies are second religion for us, come rain or shine we religiously watch all movies for as many reasons. Some of the upcoming movies like Harry Met Sejal, Spiderman, Toilet Ek Prem Katha etc., will surly drive consumers to the theatres, given their star cast. Consumption of F&B jumps up by 15% in the monsoons. So besides investing monies on on-screen advertising, it might be worth investing in branding options at the foyer/food court area. Branding inside washrooms smartly could be sure a winner as the frequency to use it is high.

Biting on the move: Most of us are foodies at heart and the quick-fix food and lavish spreads force us to commit the sin. Be it burger, pizzas, pastas and tandoori chicken, our desire to consume sees a spike. On an average, a consumer spends over 90 minutes at these locations. The right place to use real and digital world confluence! Use of table mats, tent cards rather digital tent card could be even more effective.

Steamy conversations: With 2000+ coffee outlets open to advertisement, conversations get steamy and brands have an opportunity at large to entice and indulge in rendezvous that lasts for 30 minutes on an average with receptiveness at its peak.

Academic inroads: Perhaps brands too can educate their consumers at touch points such as colleges and universities though college festivals and sponsored entertainment events have given rise to clutter and chaos lately. But lucrative opportunities still can be explored as customisation adds extra touch to your marketing efforts. Now over 1,000 colleges and universities are open to partnering with brand for promotions.

The Monday to Friday cycle: Working individuals spend close to eight hours of their time in offices and business centres. Corporate park infrastructure has become an integral part of urban city makeup and given the recent spurt in urbanisation, multitude of opportunities have opened up, including custom media and experiential engagement. Some of the key media encounters at corporate parks are frequency builders and recall enablers and some brands are open to in-office promotions too.

The take-off: With air travel on the rise, the influx of traffic at prominent airports has seen a significant increment. Domestic air passenger traffic has doubled in the past six years, witnessing a 23.18% growth in 2016. Thanks to increased operation of LLC (low cost carries), the doors to affordable air travel has welcomed a new segment of fliers, attracting opportunities for brands to interact with them. Also, dwell time at the airport is very high; passengers spend close to 1.5 hour and the receptive mind-set coupled with aesthetic media makes an ideal communication milieu.

So if you still believe that monsoon is a death knell period, it is time that you pulled out your gum boots and rain covers and head to an ambient location.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of BestMediaInfo.com and we do not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)

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