OTT platforms have to a large extent altered the media landscape – indoors and outdoors. While they have been churning out realistic and relatable content on our screens, their quirky and out-of-the-box OOH marketing tactics have generated quite a buzz.
One such recent instance was the release of Mirzapur Season 3. Amazon Prime put out a billboard, declaring the popular show’s release date as National Binge Watch Day. Various brands soon joined the bandwagon on social media.
Amazon Prime created a lot of chatter around Panchayat 2 with its ‘Lauki activations’. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi left many spellbound with its 1000-drone spectacle for revealing the launch date of the series.
The spending
According to Haresh Nayak, Founder & CEO of Connect Network, OTT platforms spend close to Rs 25 crore or even sometimes more annually on OOH media. “This is more than 20% of their total marketing budget,” he said.
Sharing more on spends, Jayesh Yagnik, Chief Executive Officer, MOMS Outdoor Media, said: “Hotstar, Netflix and Amazon Prime, the Big 3, are known to invest heavily in topical marketing in prime locations of cities like Mumbai and Delhi. This is an expensive strategy, often accounting for around 20-30% of their total OOH marketing budgets annually.”
Why the love?
Outdoor advertising has become a powerful tool for OTT platforms for amplifying the brand image and generating buzz. As urban dwellers spend more time commuting, these dynamic billboards offer an unparalleled opportunity to capture attention and drive word-of-mouth recommendations, an OTT player shared.
Rachana Lokhande, Partner, OOH Capital said, “The key advantage of OOH advertising lies in its prominent location and large scalability. Billboards, in particular, have the ability to project a larger-than-life image and make a lasting impression on consumers.”
“Let’s be honest, seeing a larger-than-life poster of Sacred Games, Mirzapur or even movies like Kaali Kaali Aankhein and Haseen Dilruba on the road while driving definitely registers in the mind of a binge-watcher. The royal burning chair of Mirzapur or the sitar of Qala on a larger-than-life billboard, helps viewers remember the core element of a web series.
The process
OTTs have leveraged the OOH medium with eye-catching creatives to stand out in the space, not just for promotions but even for topical marketing in collaboration with other brands. Furthermore, integration with other mediums, contextual relevance, and targeted placements have stood out in the case of several of these campaigns.
Yagnik shared that OTTs have been leveraging OOH effectively by using a mix of static and digital mediums. Previously, they used to advertise post a release, but now they promote content beforehand to create hype. Transit media is particularly well-used, reaching on-the-go audiences and maximising engagement, he said.
Moreover, OTT players have been innovatively displaying multiple creatives in a loop on each social media to amplify the campaign on digital mediums.
Lokhande added, “When people are out of home, they are also active on social media via mobiles. Creative OOH campaigns, therefore, find a natural amplification through social media, and many OTT platforms are using this combination.”
How beneficial?
Consumers have been known to download a certain OTT app if the poster of a web series seems too promising.
Yagnik highlighted that the percentage of the total marketing budget allocated to OOH by OTT platforms does vary but typically it is very high as this is the lead medium after digital. If there is a subsequent series after a successful season, the hype is created on larger scalable teasers and other promotions.
“Highly anticipated series have a good budget for OOH as they want to create enough buzz in the market along with great teasers. These days OOH starts from teaser and continues till the beginning of the series. This longer span helps in better billing on OOH,” he added.
Lokhande seconded that OTT is the new GEC on OOH, and OOH is the most suitable medium for reminding people what to watch next in their free time.
