MUMBAI: India’s digital out of home (DOOH) market is expected to grow rapidly over the next five years as more sites are converted to this format and as brands take advantage of the medium’s agility and ability to deliver measurability.

The number of DOOH screens has grown fivefold to 60,000 over the past three years, while, at Rs 150 crore, digital accounts for between 3% and 5% of the overall OOH market. Industry estimates suggest the DOOH market could grow 20-25% over the next five years, or more than double the rate of the total OOH market, but some observers are even more optimistic.

Ketan Lakhani, Director, Orienta Advertising, believes it can grow at 35-40%. “The major growth driver for DOOH is flexibility, which allows clients to change commercials much more easily, saving time and money on printing and mounting,” he told Impact.

“Moreover, with government permissions for installation of digital signages in public spaces, DOOH will grow rapidly, which is what makes us confident of this growth estimate,” he added.

New infrastructure developments and consumer technologies will also boost the sector, according to Ashish Pherwani, India M&E Advisory Leader at consulting firm EY.

“We believe factors such as an increase in airports and travellers, upcoming retail spaces, technology advancement with increased penetration of AR and VR technologies and ease of their deployment, targeted campaigns and offers through integration with social media and mobile, plus accurate measurability of Digital OOH, will aid its rapid growth going forward,” he said.

The nature of OOH advertising is changing as a result, as brands and agencies explore the possibilities offered by connected signage, altering displays to suit the local context – whether that’s the weather, time of day or travel patterns – or to deliver a more experiential communication that directly engages the consumer.

“The quality of display will be phenomenal, much more data and intelligence will come in, making the medium extremely exciting for brands that will be able to get viewer estimation reports on a real-time basis to judge campaign efficacy,” stated Shriranga Sudhakara, Managing Director, Vyoma Media.

Sourced from Impact; additional content by WARC staff