Operating on the theme "disrupt the status quo", this was an attempt by OAC to renew focus on issues that continue to dog the outdoor medium from achieving its true potential.

Ranjan Kapur, country manager - India, WPP and keynote speaker, shared his views on "adapting the snowball parable for the OOH industry in India." Kapur said, "The outdoor media is growing at a fantastic rate. Today we have tools to capatalise on all the assets of outdoor."

In his keynote, Kapur putforth two concerns to the creative agencies and media houses in the audience. "Is the growth coming at a cost?" and "Are we being fair?" he asked. Kapur urged the stakeholders to take a closer look at the issues and evolve a solution that could enable growth.

The pre-lunch session was titled: "Innovation – Strategy for survival & status quo or differentiation and growth?" with Navin Talreja, managing partner, Ogilvy as the moderator.

Speaking during the session, Nabendu Bhattacharya, founder and managing director, Milestone Brandcom indicated that although there are more than 20,000 players involved in the outdoor media, only the top twelve players contribute to the growth. He made his point through a graphical comparision of the OOH models in US, Europe and China and demonstrated how India can emulate these models. 

Bhattacharya summed his presentation with a Chinese proverb, "Tell me and I'll forget; Show me and I may remember; Involve me and I'll understand."

At the time of filing this report, the session on "Reinventing OOH to address current communication requirements" which highlighted the points such as metric mesurability, scalability and accountability, had just concluded. Ambika Srivatava, chairperson, Vivaki Media Exchange said that, "OOH is the third most powerful media after television and print ads, and has the ability to persuade people."

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