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India’s first outdoor advertising portal

February 16, 2010 | By Parshav Jain

Ankur Rastogi was once a media planner at JWT. Now he is the owner of www.allaboutoutdoor.com. Based on his experiences as a media planner and buyer he started this portal in 2007 to put bring a bit of order to the high stakes chaos of what is known variously as the signage industry, outdoor, or OOH (out of home). The portal tries to bridge the gap between suppliers and advertisers with site and supplier location and many of the ancillary services that could in the long run work as an organising principle for an industry that is variously described as chaotic and dominated by those who control the vertical real estate – the hoarding site.

Rastogi’s website aims at providing support to the business objectives of media owners, planners, buyers and everyone related to the out-of-home (OOH) media industry by providing all the information including photographs of the hoarding sites and other types of signage on-line.

According to Rastogi the majority of media buying is done directly by large companies or by their media buying agencies that mainly headquartered in Delhi and Mumbai. These agencies have access to some data but which may be outdated and the media plans shown to clients are often merely an excel sheet with sizes, quantity and the cost of ads. On the other hand there is a demand from clients for better and more visual information – pictures of the sights, route maps and even impact data or monitoring systems or agencies. In the past, media planners in the metros were not able to provide the best options available in neither a targeted nor visuals of the exact location to their customers. To provide dynamic and visual information of actual signage on actual sites around the country together with route maps and other relevant commercial information is the key reason for building this outdoor signage portal. The section on market information showcases the maps for eight cities and locations where the advertisement can be placed.

The All About Outdoor website is neutral platform for printers to showcase their technology and capabilities while marketing professionals are provided with a gamut of information and knowledge aimed at their advertising needs. The website provides filters to narrow down the search for a desired location, its environment and demographics. Search filters can be very useful for media planners and vendor information can be shortlisted on the basis of substrate, printing machine and printing job selection.

Started in July 2007, the first year of the website went in gathering information and knowledge about outdoor advertising and in generating databases. Thereafter, clients started demanding more and wanted additional tools to process the data, which led to the addition of new sections like latest campaigns, people movement, creative guidelines, and a glossary among other features.

According to Rastogi, marketing professionals often refer to the signage printer as a “per square feet guy” -- responsible only for printing and providing quotes. However Rastogi feels that the printer is actually the key technical person whose domain knowledge extends from the most appropriate media, to colour correction and quality control. For printers, All about outdoor acts as a sales platform to showcase their machines, knowledge and processing capabilities.

Currently allaboutoutdoor has its head-office in Delhi and offices in Jaipur and Kolkata, which makes for a strong position in Northern and Eastern India with plans to extend their services to Western and Southern parts of the country. A registered user base of 12,800 professionals of which 20 per cent are brand managers and brand marketers while the balance 80 per cent are site asset owners and media buying agencies. On an average four enquires are generated every day, which is a good response according to Rastogi.

Talking about his business model, Rastogi says that a large base of buyers visit the website and revenue is generated from the printers and suppliers of outdoor media whose banners populate the appropriate pages of the platform to showcase their capabilities. The site segments the data in such a way that it reaches out to the supplier directly. All about outdoor seeks to become a one-stop shop for the signage industry.