Have you ever seen a 20 metre clothesline with clothes of all shapes, sizes and colours merrily dancing in the wind? Ninety five per cent of the answers are going to be in the affirmative. But what if I said that all the clothes were actually ‘dirty linen’? Flummoxed? What if I followed it up with the fact that the clothesline was not in someone’s backyard or balcony but on a divider on a busy road in a major metro? I can see you wondering if I’ve gone batty with spring fever!
Well the narration, though a little old, is very true. A lot of us were taken aback to see this almost endless makeshift clothesline on a busy road in Delhi, which had, at the end of it, a huge hoarding of Onida’s new top-loading machine. Mc- Cann Erikson was able to jolt the preoccupied Delhite out of his complacency by this innovative use of the boringly lacklustre Delhi roads. The element of surprise and novelty left an indelible impression in my memory that has stayed put for a long, long time.
Creativity and innovation are the communication industry’s lifeblood and the last decade has seen some remarkable feats in the otherwise run-of-the mill and tardy Out of Home (OOH) media. The stationary, low cost but high visibility domain had a huge latent potential with a small 10 per cent share of the total advertising industry in India. So a lot of agencies like McCann and others like TDI and OOH have taken the bull by the horns and put it on the fast track to growth.
Some interesting experiments were carried out by Ezone Powai (in Mumbai) where a huge 8ft x 5ft 3D washing machine advertisement, with real clothes and water swishing inside it, was created and strategically placed in order to promote the new e zone store that had a ‘wide range of washing machines at the Powai store’. The washing machine also had a blue light lit up inside the rotating drum after dark. Mumbai also saw an interesting and innovative OOH plus CSR (corporate social responsibility) initiative during the August monsoons, by Aircel. The hoarding had a huge rubber boat tied to a billboard with strings (to be cut during an emergency). The raft could be a huge help to the Mumbaikars during waterlogging and the tongue-in-cheek message proclaimed “Sail through our network this monsoon.’’ The latest of the lot is the month-long, larger-than-life campaign by Pepsi with five members of the World Cup squad prominently displayed with a promise to ‘Change the Game’. This is in perfect synchronisation with every Indian’s dream.
Hoardings and billboards are but one platform; innovation has taken many different sounding boards and forms. Some interesting examples are the huge wish balloon carrying hundreds and thousands of messages to Santa on Christmas day from a popular mall in Delhi by Alpenlebe; Max New York Life painted the entire Kankaria Lake area in Ahmedabad yellow with Karo zyada ka irada on every point of visibility from the tables and chairs to the stalls and shades and even the boats.
The experimentation does not stop here. Creative directors have transcended the boundaries of stagnant podiums to mobile billboards placed on small trucks and trailers, which talk to the whole potential catchment area where the buyer resides about Fitness First and the new broadband kid on the block: MTS. The latest addition in the mobile billboard options are the private taxis operating in the city. The entire taxi fascia is a potential graffiti for Vodafone, Fevicol, Airtel, Samsung, Nokia etc. The symbiotic relationship works well as the cab owner is able to increase his revenue basket as well as outsource the external body maintenance to the advertiser.
Other areas of intriguing possibilities are transit spaces, where the audience is captive and idle thus creating brand impressions are that much easier. Airport advertising, railway junctions and waiting areas can be effectively used for the mutual benefit of the advertiser who wants to showcase his creative. At the same time non-descript and conventional foyers can be spruced up and interestingly brightened with mobile and digitally interactive billboards and kiosks.
From the stagnant to the mobile to the strategically inactive merchandise placement of aspirational products like the red Beetle and the black Jaguar on Valentine’s day in a popular mall in south Delhi. From waste bin walls managed by ICICI Prudential to children’s parks with red and yellow swings maintained by Mc Donald. From speaking and talking paranormal activity billboards to tattooed human bodies, the OOH media vehicle has come a long way. However, there are still endless horizons waiting to be explored because as the epitome of creativity Walt Disney said…“We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths…”
The writer is professor, marketing, International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi