The Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA), the national body of outdoor media owners, has drafted a letter suggesting all agencies to deal with members associated with IOAA only.

According to insiders, this has been done in order to prevent them from engaging with illicit media owners and also to encourage every media player to incorporate the measurability software, Roadstar.

A major issue has cropped up about who should bear the cost of Roadstar – media owners or agencies. 

Many media owners aren’t ready to bear the cost of a software like Roadstar since they believe agencies will utilise it more and hence should bear the expense. On the other hand, agencies believe that since it’s an initiative by media owners, Roadstar should be funded by them.

To make the industry understand that Roadstar is not a cost but an investment, advertisers are recommended to engage with members of IOAA only, who ensure transparency, measurability and accountability in their numbers. In order to make this decision more impactful, the IOAA will also ask Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) to adopt this suggestion.

e4m was first to report about the RoadStar roll out and then its pilot test last week. 

Additionally, post the Ghatkopar billboard tragedy, it was derived that the client or the agency had no idea about the legitimacy of the media owner of that particular billboard spot. Further, to prevent this from reoccurring, the IOAA has taken the onus of looping in more media owners under their umbrella to vouch for their authenticity.

As of now, the IOAA has only 125 members which is about 3-4% of the total market size of OOH media players. Hence, to ensure the authenticity of every player is nearly impossible. By looping in more players, the industry will be able to collectively tackle the issue of accountability.