Mumbai : Subsequent to the MOU signed between Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA), after months of discussion and deliberations both parties have arrived at a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to be followed by members of both Associations, with a view to regulating and growing the Indian Outdoor Advertising Industry. On the occasion both Associations echoed the sentiment that this is a landmark agreement in the long history of Outdoor Industry in India and will go a long way in building Advertiser confidence in buying outdoor sites and enabling them to invest heavily in outdoor and exploiting its true potential.
Mr. Nakul Chopra, President of AAAI says, “I am delighted that many vexing issues have been sorted out in an amicable manner through healthy debate and discussion over the past few months and I am confident that this will go a long way in growing the OOH industry.”
Mr. Noomi Mehta, President of IOAA says, “The IOAA is a premier Association of large and established outdoor players in India and growing in strength with more Outdoor owners signing up as our members. The agreement on SOP between IOAA and AAAI is a significant step and I do hope that both Outdoor Owners and Agency Owners will carry out their responsibilities in order to benefit from the advantages that the SOP spells out for both parties.”
THE NEED FOR A SOP
The Outdoor Media industry is highly fragmented in India with a large number of not well organized and small players who own sites or are concessionaires of site owners. This has led to improper utilization of the medium and also stunted growth of the Industry. This has also often led to the exploitation of either Advertiser or Outdoor Agency or Outdoor Media Owner, depending from which lens you view the Industry. This has often led to Advertisers not being able to buy Outdoor with the same confidence that they buy other Media.
There is a now an established practice of a large number of Advertisers meeting their Outdoor requirements through Outdoor Agencies that may be independent or part of Media Agencies or Advertising Agencies. To enable the Outdoor Agencies to participate in the AAAI forum, AAAI hasformed an Outdoor Media Forum (OMF) and AAAI-OMF has entered into a far reaching agreement with Indian Outdoor Agencies Association (IOAA- an Association of Outdoor Owners) with a view to regulate and grow the Outdoor Advertising industry and ensure that all parties involved, discharge their responsibility honorably and no one party gets exploited in the transaction or feels he is exploited.
