The Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA) recently released a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) aimed to bring structure and a systematic approach towards OOH industry operations, with a view to create increased transparency and accountability.
Any effort to understand this new development from the IOAA must be seen from the prism of clients / advertisers, media agencies and media owners. The SOP intends to address the growing concerns prevalent in the OOH industry and introduce measures to streamline operations for media agencies and advertisers.
What we liked…
The SOP seems to be a sincere effort to introduce parity in terms of operational processes like contracts, campaign agreements, campaign parameters, verification processes and financial transactions in line with existing processes pertaining to other media like TV and Print.
It lays emphasizes on the media contract as a mandatory and base document for all interactions between the media owner, agency and advertiser thereby illustrating rules of engagement which should be followed. This should lead to lower disputes, increased clarity and the ability to set expectations upfront.
The SOP introduces a ‘Campaign Confirmation Form (CCF)’ which will capture every minute detail of the campaign so all parties remain on the same page, and which is required as the basis for invoicing, and without which no campaign is to be executed by media owners. This should reduce the instances of delayed or non-receipt of release orders from advertisers / agencies, thereby resulting in increased credit periods.
Cancellation guidelines are also defined, which removes the risk of last second cancellations by clients or agencies, as well as cancellations on account of mistakes by media owners. Again, a policy of this nature build trust and prevents disputes.
IOAA goes onto describe the monitoring and verification process which they believe should be sufficient to address the concerns of advertisers for execution of OOH campaigns. This is done keeping in mind that proof of performance seems to be the bane of contention for every advertiser. The SOP accommodates the logistical constraints and bottlenecks pertaining to Tier-2, Tier-3 and upcountry markets.
What comes as a great relief to the industry is the financial transparency of the OOH ecosystem, especially when they don’t have big brothers like IBF and INS fighting it out for them. Accordingly, concerns like credit periods, time-bound invoicing and defaults can now be dealt in a more conclusive manner.
What we would further like to see…
There are certain aspects that the SOP does not cover, but which we as independent observers would have appreciated.
The biggest concern faced by the advertiser is on account of impact assessment based on site location and visibility, but the SOP remains silent on this front. There should be standardization of how sites are evaluated and rated on a real time basis.
The veracity of supporting documents shared by the agency / media owner as proof of performance has been the Achilles heel of this business, and more emphasis on this will only strengthen investor confidence. A mechanism like a website / database with client access should be generated for sharing such information as stipulated in the SOP.
Measurement is also relevant from a pricing point of view. Currently, many advertisers and agencies feel that pricing in the OOH industry is totally haphazard. There have been innumerable instances of sites in the same location being offered at large rate variances, and the same site being offered by multiple media owners or agencies at vastly different rates. This causes not only marketing but also financial controllers to sit up and take notice. Our sincere belief is that once this is sorted, confidence in OOH spends will increase.
Transactional transparency with respect to commissions and remunerations should be maintained at all times and OOH agencies should be willing to initiate proactive independent third-party validation for large clients, which report back to the client directly, and provide them with the necessary confidence.
In matters of execution and documentation, the Campaign Confirmation Form may conflict with the Release (or Purchase) Order from the Agency. The Release Order is an accepted format for execution instructions, to have a CCF corresponding to the same may create conflicts on version control and avoidable hassles and disputes.
In conclusion…
Clearly the SOP is targeted to bring traditional media-like efficiency to OOH operations so that advertisers who currently shirk it because of its unregulated nature begin to find it more acceptable. We feel the SOP will help the OOH industry expand and grow.
The effort from IOAA must be lauded. A structure and cohesion in processes have always in the past gone a long way to increasing comfort, and hence we expect the SOP will get its thumbs up from most advertisers
By Ashish Pherwani and Bharat Rajamani, from the Media & entertainment practice at Ernst & Young Pvt Ltd
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