Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
This month, we welcome Rajneesh Rawat, Managing Director, Origins Advertising PVT. Ltd., Lucknow, India
- I believe your background is with a worldwide ad agency. Please tell us about yourself, and how you got interested specifically in Out-of-Home and Digital Out-of-Home.
Yes. I worked with Saatchi & Saatchi India for about five years at various positions in client services and was one of the top performers in the Saatchi & Saatchi client services team. I left Saatchi & Saatchi around mid-1998 to start something on my own. After trying various independent advertising assignments, I found that Out-of-Home has extremely good potential. I co-founded Origins Advertising Private Limited in the year 2000. My advertising background, work culture, professional integrity and strict approach for quality played a major role in establishing the brand name very quickly.
Today, we are a leading OOH player in North India. I always have been fascinated with digital OOH and from the day we put up our first billboard, I always used to think and plan that when the time is right, we’ll have some digital billboards. From the day of establishing Origins, Digital OOH was a kind of dream to me and I’ve always envisaged having something similar to Times Square, the Mecca of Digital OOH, in India.
- Were the associated companies: Origins BR. Digital Signs PVT Ltd. and Origins Photoelectricity Consort PVT. Ltd. (ie Orion LED) all in existence before you co-founded Origins? Please acquaint us with the company’s background, its ownership and offices.
None of the companies mentioned above was in existence the time Origins Advertising was founded. We started Origins BR in the year 2012. Origins BR is into digital signage solutions and integrations, with two offices and workshops across Lucknow and Delhi.
Further, after sensing a huge potential in the Digital OOH market, we jumped into manufacturing and founded Origins Photoelectricity in 2015. The cost gap between branded manufacturers and cheap alternates was too wide, and a product somewhat in between was not at all available in the market. I personally toured US/China/Taiwan a dozen times to study, select the latest technology and quality components, and to close suppliers (ie. to shortlist and finalize the best companies for OEM arrangements and tieups for our components.)
After a year and a half of study and R&D, we launched the LED brand ‘Orion’, which is a great product in both quality and performance. The brand ‘Orion’ has been made specially to fill the vacuum in the mid-price segment, and costs substantially less in comparison to the top brands. We are assembling LED screens in our factory in Noida, India. We are currently sourcing roughly 70% of the components from Taiwan, China, and the remaining 30% locally.
By the year 2018, we have a target to start a fully integrated manufacturing facility in an EMC (Electronic Manufacturing Cluster) being developed by the Government of UP with support of DeitY near Noida.
Currently, Origins Group has seven offices across India and equity of all the companies is held privately. I personally hold substantial equity in all the Group companies.
- Although Origins seems to operate as a traditional ad agency, you seem to have a passion for Digital Out-of-Home. Please tell us about this and why.
You’ve got it right. I personally have a lot of passion for Digital OOH. Well, I really can’t say why, but for the inner me, it may be my childhood fascination for signs, while on the outside, it’s the dynamism and potential of the media. If DOOH is used sensibly with proper content, it can do wonders for any brand.
In any case, I just love it!
- I notice that you ran a special DOOH ad campaign (in 2015, I believe) for the Uttar Pradesh state government’s UP Rising project. What was that all about?
There was a major event happening in Gujarat: ‘NRI Day’ which a lot of the major NRI (Non-Resident Indian) business community was expected to attend. UP, being the third largest economy of India, wanted to showcase developments and policies related to the ease of doing business. The idea was to connect with the NRI community and attract talents and investments in the state.
- Was that campaign run in other media as well as DOOH? Why was it run in the state of Gujarat rather than in your own?
Yes, It ran across traditional OOH, Print and Radio. The answer to the other point is explained above. Further, the government is continuously running Digital OOH campaigns on its own on over 20 large LED screens on about 100 Digital LED Vans. The UP Government spending on DOOH is currently the highest in the country.
- Following up on that topic, you also ran a multimedia campaign for something called the UP Rising Investors Conclave. Do you have a contract to handle the state government’s advertising? Please explain, as most of our readers are not that familiar with India’s advertising rules and contracts.
Yes, we did run a multimedia campaign for ‘UP Rising Investors Conclave’. The idea behind that campaign was the same (as explained in the previous questions), and the UP Government closed around $3.5 billion worth of investment commitments from companies across the globe.
There are campaigns or project-based contracts/orders given by the government to empanelled agencies which are normally tender/rate contract based. (Empanelled agencies is the term for agencies listed/registered after tenders and other formalities with the client to carry out jobs on their behalf.)
- I see that you have large and small DOOH displays and large format LED displays in hospitals, malls, airports and other sectors. What do you think are the most important verticals for your company and why?
Currently, our prime focus is on large format OOH digital locations and it’s the most important vertical for us but at the same time we are also building captive LED screens networks across Malls, hospitals, high street stores, Government offices and more. I strongly believe an integrated multi-platform digital media solution will play a major role in clients’ planning and decision making on advertising spends.
- Not long ago, you changed your Content Management System to that of BroadSign. Why? What specifically does it offer you?
We switched to BroadSign because it is an open-ended platform and we are able to do third party API integrations on our own as well as a lot of other activities/innovations on a real time basis. The support from our previous platform was quite slow and it was more or less close ended.
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I notice that you have mobile LED vans. How many? Where do you offer them?
We currently have a fleet of over 50 Vans and we use them for rural outreach and activations. These vans are offered mainly to Fast Moving Consumer Goods clients for activations, and to various government departments running social/public welfare campaigns.
- Does your associated company (Orion) manufacture all your display screens? Does it also provide screens for other DOOH companies?
Yes, all the screens we are commissioning now are manufactured in our own facility and, yes, we do provide screens to other DOOH companies. As there are not many DOOH operators in India, we are perusing and encouraging traditional OOH companies to convert their prime OOH locations into digital ones. Currently, we have an arrangement with two traditional OOH companies to convert their prime static sites with Digital and have already done sample screens for them.
- What percentage of your Out-of-Home is Digital? How many advertising faces do you have in total?
Currently, 2%-3% of our OOH is Digital and we plan it to take it to 10% within the next three years. We have over 1,000 large format advertising faces but, interestingly, in a sort span of time, around 30% of our current revenue has started to come from Digital OOH and we are confident that by next year with a few more Digital OOH installations lined up, we’ll be able to clock around 50% of our total revenue from Digital.
- As an ad agency, do you place your advertising on other company’s screens as well?
Yes, we certainly do.
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With the huge population of India and such disparate income levels, how do you target advertising for your clients? What kind of measurement systems do you use?
We offer our screens on a time-sharing model and we strictly limit our every screen to a maximum set of five clients – and no same sector clients can advertise during the contract time. This policy is to avoid clutter, conflict and to provide good value to every brand. Initially, the acceptance of sharing time with other brands on DOOH screens was not particularly liked by advertisers, but over a period of time, the media made its presence felt and created a niche for itself. Now we have Global brands like Audi, Motorola, Samsung, Google, Ford, Suzuki, Discovery taking screens on a time-sharing basis along with various top Indian brands.
In terms of measurement, we don’t currently have an Audience Measurement System but we do have a Proof-of-Performance system. We provide broadcast logs similar to TV/Radio, which are duly audited. Also, we provide live cam links along with weekly schedules to clients to see live Proof-of-Performance while sitting in their office. Further, we are working on an Audience Measurement System by integrating beacons and additional cameras on every Digital Screen.
- Are you using data a lot? Please explain.
I’m sorry, I’m not certain that I understand. If you are talking about data analytics for programmatic buying, we are not using data. However, real time data/content and live events/feeds are frequently being used by us. We also plan to incorporate live data RSS feeds for public information services like traffic, news, weather, pollution, etc.. We believe public information services on the screens will increase the level of engagement with consumers.
- I notice that you publish your company’s philosophy, mission and vision statements on your website. Why are they important to publicize?
Well, I believe that what’s inside normally gets unnoticed, and philosophy, mission and vision statements are the heart and soul of an organization and they should be made noticeable.
- Has the use of beacons, NFC, QR codes and similar ways of engaging consumers penetrated to any extent in India? If so, how are they received and who uses them?
No. No beacons, NFC, RFID or QR codes are currently being used in India for DOOH, though clients are well aware of these and are ready to experiment. But somehow, all these are yet to kick off.
- What is the growth potential for Origins in the next two years? Please tell us a bit about the company’s growth strategy?
Well, we foresee a tremendous growth in next two years, especially with more Digital OOH installations, both owned and with other OOH players. The strategy is simple: to convert and leverage premium static inventory to high revenue generating digital ones. In other words, it’s linked to the growth of DOOH market. Statistically, we have set a target to attain at least 50% topline growth annually for next three years.
- Please give us a general view of how you see the DOOH industry in India progressing between now and 2020.
Massively! I strongly believe the growth of DOOH in India will be massive. With acceptance of Digital OOH among Government, clients, society, etc., and with DOOH-friendly policies by more states and proposed new policies by various Government bodies, DOOH is set to boom. Top of all, our Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a clear vision and plans to make India ‘Digital India’, which will also translate into a big boost to DOOH.
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