The Fragmented State of OOH Advertising

Hashbrown did not choose OOH, OOH chose Hashbrown 

It is often interesting how the world works. Hashbrown Systems would be the last company that the people running the Out-of-home business would think of, if they had to build a software product.  

Our software systems are precise, auditable, true to the purpose and not to be tempered with. Afterall we have been in the numbers and data game before they become the buzzword for every Tom, Dick and Harvinder, who was looking to gain foothold into the industry. 

To cut the long story short, when we were contracted by Bubna Advertising to build a monitoring and audit system, we were oblivious to the amount of pilferage that rot the system. We built an ooh monitoring system that empowered the agency to forge a bond of trust with the brands they worked with, and substantially grew their business.  

You may read about that journey here - https://hashbrown.com/case-studies/hashbrown-bubna-advertising-ooh-audit 

Audit to Planning to Cameras 

With the expertise that we had and the experience that we gained, we tried to build a machine learning allocation tool tentatively called Furiosa and later on with encouragement from one of the leading Indian agencies built a data-driven planning tool called Compass, journey here for those interested - https://hashbrown.com/case-studies/hashbrown-Compass 

We also built – not imported – devices that would monitor Indian traffic in Indian conditions, as these videos will attest to the fact – 

In Delhi  

In Chandigarh Tri City Area 

In Ludhiana 

and why we did this? 

Because at Hashbrown Systems we build things, that is what we do, and there would be time for more of such declarations. It begs the question. 

The Response of the Industry 

The biggest mistake we made was to entrust our inventions in the hands of one of the big four. The women and men of science asked commission earning businessmen to take things forward and their greed ran into the crumbling economy.  

But that was not it, we met a whole of industry leaders and other people associated with it. They products were too transparent. There was very little room for price gauging. Was there a way to falsify numbers?  

Questions, that we at Hashbrown did not give the requisite answers to. 

From the very first day to this day, we have been aware of the shady business practices of the Out-of-home advertising Industry in India. We also understand that they have this cabal and another coterie of professionals, who meet every few months, pat each other on their back and set up another such assemblage.  

We have been part of some, we have observed some from a distance and now we have decided to plant our own flag and present the tools, software and solutions to those who would like to create a cleaner, effective and trustworthy Out-of-home business practices.  

To misquote Spanky from Little Rascals –  

 ‘All the money, regulation and power is a poor substitute for hard work, engineering and ingenuity’