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Digitisation has had such a massive impact on the lives of people that it is difficult to imagine life in any other way. It has also changed the way the advertising industry functions. DOOH is the latest buzz in the digital advertising space. Digital-Out-of-Home advertising is basically OOH powered up with AdTech –, Advertising on digital screens with tracking, retargeting, personalising, and measurement.

With enormous scope for innovation and creativity, the space has witnessed new startups in recent years. Founded in 2021, Hyderabad-based Bellplus Media incorporates technology to help brands with more interactive and result-oriented advertising.

Creating a measurable impact

Gayathri Reddy and Dev Abhilash founded Bellplus Media with the aim to make DOOH media more flexible, affordable and measurable for brands. “More SMEs and startups want to advertise on mediums other than social media but are unable to do so due to limited assets and strict governing laws by individual states. Bellplus Media offers quick and on-the-go advertising services to the brands along with a view of campaign performance metrics,” says Gayathri who pursued her MBA in marketing and studied Global Economics at the University of Cambridge, London.

Gayathri recently received a global leadership award in Marketing 2.0 in Dubai where she was also a keynote speaker on ‘Evolution of programmatic DOOH and future of Advertising’.

One of the major differences between traditional OOH and DOOH advertising is that the OOH has for long now been relying on estimated figures. However, with DOOH brands are now able to leverage accurate data and reach their audiences as per their needs appropriately.

“The service we offer is residential and commercial DOOH advertising where digital screens are fixed in high footfall areas near elevators and common areas. Our target audience includes high purchasing power people which yields higher ROI to the brands,” says Dev who also holds an MBA degree in marketing and comes with extensive experience in brand building and strategic planning in the OOH space.

“We customised a dual screen system which is a first-of-its-kind in India with an exclusive notice board to the residential and commercial societies,” he adds.

Affordable advertising for hyper-local and SMEs

DOOH provides an affordable alternative to outdoor advertising which is greatly beneficial to hyper-local enterprises and SMEs. “The difference in DOOH is similar to that of buying a piece of cake and buying an entire cake. In DOOH, brands buy a slot which is more affordable like buying a piece of cake which satisfies the need and reduces cost. There are no printing, mounting or labour charges and is also measurable. All the campaign updates are on the cloud so the client can delete or change the content in a matter of minutes,” shares Gayathri.

According to Gayathri, small-scale and hyper-local businesses are lagging in advertising due to high costs and lack of availability of media assets. SMEs have a huge dependency on social media which is again specific to demography. Through Bellplus Media, brands can expand their reach to residential and commercial spaces and use DOOH as an additional channel to market their products. “DOOH is a game changer for the Indian market. We can say this with certainty because we have witnessed promising ROI for our existing clients,” she adds.

Adtech for the future

Bellplus Media also plans on leveraging AI/ML to create more target-based ads. Automated DOOH will further provide innovative options for brands to choose from. From ad-auction to real-time reports, personalised targeting to preferences, advanced tech is set to revolutionise the DOOH space.“The idea is to provide a seamless experience for all our clients,” says Dev.

The DOOH startup provides reports to clients in an exclusive portal to help with information such as the number of times the ad was played, the number of viewers, reach and targeted reach difference, location of the viewers, devices etc.

There is still a huge market to be covered in the DOOH space and Bellplus Media has made a significant contribution in a short span of time. In just two years, the startup has managed to become the fastest-growing DOOH media company for residential and commercial areas.

The road ahead

The startup raised its seed funding for $ 1 million in March 2022. With over 3,000 screens in major properties like Hiranandani, Lodha, and DLF spread across eight cities, Bellplus Media has worked on creating ROI-driven campaigns in just two years.

There is a scope for 5,00,000 screens in the Indian market, out of which only 8-9 percent of the market is covered including all the major players. “At Bellplus Media, our focus is on targeting more than 1 lakh screens with an increased presence in tier-1 and tier-2 cities. We are also looking at increasing our software capabilities and become a market leader in residential and commercial advertising space,” concludes Dev and Gayathri.