OOH industry eying pre-Covid level recovery before the 2022 festive season

The OOH industry that was severely impacted by the pandemic is back in full swing. According to PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2022- 2026 report, India’s out-of-home (OOH) advertising market is demonstrating one of the strongest comebacks globally. It is predicted to grow at 12.57% CAGR to reach Rs 5,562 crore in 2026.

“In 2021 total OOH revenue was up to Rs 3,076 crore. The momentum of this rebound will carry over into 2022, and by year-end, the market will be at the value of Rs 4,084 crore,” said the report.

Aman Nanda

According to Aman Nanda, Chief Strategy Officer, Times OOH, they were doing well until 2021 December. This was then followed by the third wave in January and February where things slowed down. “However, from March, there is an extremely positive sentiment, travel, shopping, and offices reopening has positively impacted OOH. We were close to about 90% of pre-Covid business in June.”

Parimal Modi

“We are expecting a good recovery in Q2 of FY 2022-23. Even with rising Covid Cases in many parts of the country, the impact of the pandemic is now considerably reduced on people’s mobility. Businesses are now operating at normal level and the outlook on business in Q2 and for the rest of the year looks positive,” said Parimal Modi, CFO, Khushi Advertising Ideas.

Modi added that they are currently at 85-90% of their pre-Covid revenue levels and they are hopeful of achieving pre-Covid levels in this quarter alone.

Dipankar Sanyal

Dipankar Sanyal, CEO of Platinum Outdoor and MRP, said, “As per our estimates we are expecting OOH to grow by 36% over last year. In the last two years, we saw fewer categories being active and reduced spending as mobility reports showed consumer mobility skewed towards residential areas, pharmacy and healthcare and hypermarkets. But now mobility reports show normal dispersion towards relevant touchpoints, hence the reason for all categories to get active.”

Sanyal further said they have already reached pre-Covid levels and are expecting a healthier growth over 2019 this time.

Expectations from the festive period

With the economy open in full swing, and the festive season approaching soon, the industry is looking to end 2022 on a much stronger note.

Speaking about their outlook for the 2022 festive season, Nanda said, “My estimate is that we should be at pre-Covid levels before it. And October. November and December will push the envelope to the next level and register further growth.”

“The festive season is always great for Indian OOH. Almost all the clients from high-spending categories like Real estate, banking, and FMCG have started planning for the festive season. Looks like a charged-up festive season this year. 50% of the OOH spending happens in the festive season. Since the overall spending is going to go up, the festive season will see its share of growth,” stated Sanyal.

According to Modi, the enquiries and orders in the pipeline are excellent for the festive period. He said many brands are now quite aggressive in terms of launching their new products in the market and they are looking forward to encashing the festive period starting from August this year. “We hope to recover almost 100% in this festive period,” he said.

The sectors fuelling the OOH growth

New-age brands, start-ups and OTT players are the big investors in OOH as well as DOOH (Digital Out-of-home advertising) this season.

“Real estate, FMCG, banking, automobiles, retail, and OTT are some of the categories which will be spending actively in the coming month,” said Sanyal.

On the other hand, Nanda of Times OOH stated that new-age brands, OTT platforms and start-ups are preferring DOOH, and it is a significant revenue stream for them.

The automobile and smartphone categories were big spenders on OOH. But the automobile category had slashed its advertising over the past two years due to the Covid situation. On the other hand, major smartphone brands backed out of their budgets due to the geopolitical situation between India and China.

Asked whether the sectors have returned to OOH, Nanda said, “We have seen that premium smartphones have continued to advertise in airports. They are back to the FY19 level of spending. The automobile category is also returning.”

According to Sanyal, some smartphone brands have decreased roadside sustenance media but destination branding at airports is still active. He said the spending has not increased by those brands.

As per Modi of Khushi Advertising Ideas, smartphone brands did have supply chain issues and their new launches were affected due to the same. However, as per him, things are now streamlined and the brands are planning the launch of their new products from August onwards, which shall boost the contribution of this category to the overall OOH business.

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