IPL high on outdoors

The 15-day OOH campaign is executed by MOMS, the outdoor unit of Madison, and is spread across more than 78 markets pan India.

Indian Premier League (IPL) fever has hit the nation yet again, with the start of the fifth season of IPL on April 4. Continuing its tradition, a high decibel out of home (OOH) campaign has been rolled out by SET Max, with innovations across various outdoor formats.

To highlight the communication theme 'Aapki seat reserved hai', a packed bus has been created on a hoarding in Mumbai, with real people sitting on it during peak hours. At other times, the hoarding displays the match schedule for the day. A similar innovation has been carried out on a mobile van, with live cheerleaders performing near the hoarding.

In Delhi, a real sofa has been created in a bus shelter, with a big framed group photo of cricketers. The creative featuring the cricketers is in a perfect family picture set up, and aims to highlight that the entire family can sit together and watch the IPL. A cut-out of a photographer with flash lights is also placed in the shelter at regular intervals.

Gaurav Seth, senior vice-president, marketing, SET Max, says, "Outdoor presence traditionally plays a big role in our marketing mix for the IPL. The various formats of outdoor media that we utilise in our campaign range from large impact billboards to smaller format frequency building hoardings. The entire range of street furniture available is also utilised in the plan to create a robust presence out of home."

The campaign also features innovations inside airports in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai, in which sofas with countdown timers are placed at the arrival areas.

Moreover, there are tie ups with malls and multiplexes in Mumbai and Delhi. Various items such as commodes, hay stacks, large paint buckets and paper stacks are placed at the multiplexes to establish the communication, 'Tashreef ka tokra jama ke rakhiye'.

Dipankar Sanyal, chief operating officer, MOMS, says, "The whole campaign has an essence of omnipresence, with clutter breaking innovations which to take the audience by surprise by the subtlety of their presence in malls and multiplexes. The effect is doubled by the larger-than-life buses installed with real people inside them. This campaign is like a perfect marriage of the client's (SET Max) desire to bring the campaign alive and the agency's ability to think beyond the usual to bring the desires into action."

As a part of the campaign, a broad media mix has been used to create maximum impact. Apart from hoardings, Metro station signages, unipoles, utilities, bus queue shelters (BQS), gantries, mega clusters, bridge panels, glass façades, pillar branding and bus panels have been used for the OOH campaign. However, in smaller towns, the media is tactically selected in high congregation points near railway stations, bus stands and market places.

The campaign is based on the tagline, 'Aisa mauka aur kahan milega', which means that the IPL is known for the opportunity it has given everyone, be it the franchise or the small town player who got a chance to play with Sachin, or a grandmother who finally found some content on television which can be viewed with her grandson, or an opportunity for a family to bind together.

"Our brief this year to MOMS was simple. Take the central thought of our campaign, Aisa mauka aur kahan milega, and manifest it pan India in the outdoor medium. Right from the creative planning to the innovations chosen and executed, MOMS has been partnering us in this effort," adds Seth on the campaign brief.

The creative agency is JWT, while the OOH campaign has been executed by MOMS, the outdoor unit of Madison

The 15-day OOH campaign kicked off on March 29 across India, spread across 78 markets.