Screenverse and SOMO Launch 4,000 Digital Taxi Tops Across New York City: A New Era in Urban Advertising

Beyond Billboards: Zero Degree’s Custom OOH Redefines Advertising in Kerala

June 13, 2025

Metro Marketing Magic: Why Brands Are Lining Upto Advertise with Kochi Metro

In a bustling city like Kochi, a new player is stealing the spotlight in the world of advertising: the Kochi Metro. Over the years, Kochi Metro has grown beyond being a reliable mode of transport and into a dynamic branding platform. It is visible, trusted, and deeply tied to the lives of millions inhabiting the city. Businesses from across the state are competing with each other over the many marketing avenues that Kochi Metro has opened. But what is so special about advertising with Kochi Metro?Why are businesses in a hurry to get their brand names displayed across the metro network? Once we understand the scale of things involved with Kerala’s only metro, answers to these questions and more become obvious. Let’s take a closer look at Kochi Metro and the modern out-of-home (OOH) advertising opportunities that it presents. Imagining Kochi Metro as a Brand Ambassador In advertising, it is not just about the quality of the product or service you offer – it is also about where people discover you, and whom your brand is seen alongside. These factors play a big role in shaping public perception. Companies often rope in famous personalities to serve as the face of their brands. This helps the public develop a sense of familiarity – and even trust – because the brand is represented by someone they already know and hold in high regard. People may not know much about the brand itself, but they know the celebrity, and in time, they start to associate the personality and values of one with the other. Kerala’s Favourite Public Transport Since it was the first metro rail network in Kerala, Kochi Metro was welcomed with open arms. The Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) operates Kochi Metro, Kochi Water Metro and a fleet of feeder buses and has been a godsend for the city’s public transportation system. Ridership keeps growing, new route extensions are underway, and the project continues to expand with visible momentum. Beyond its practical benefits, Kochi Metro has also built a vibrant online presence. Its social media content – especially on Instagram and Facebook – cleverly taps into popular memes, trending topics, and relatable humour. There is a personality to the firm that people engage with and enjoy It would be hard to find someone who isn’t appreciative of the positive changes the Metro has brought to Kochi and its surrounding areas. Safe to say, it enjoys a widely positive public image – something which brands can benefit from. What Makes Kochi Metro a Safe Bet As Kochi Metro began exploring new revenue streams through advertising, established out-of-home (OOH) agencies like Zero Degree stepped in with fresh ideas. Now, when your brand’s name appears on metro pillars, medians, or inside the stations, it is more than just exposure – people start associating your brand with Kochi Metro.Businesses have realized this opportunity and are competing to paint the Metro in their colours.Here is why Kochi Metro is such a powerful partner: Stable and consistent – Unlike individual celebrities, Kochi Metro follows defined regulations and public conduct Symbol of progress – It represents development, efficiency, and public welfare in Kerala Trusted and loved – Thousands rely on it every day, making it a well-respected presence in people’s lives Highly visible – Ads on the Metro grabs the attention of thousands of commuters everyday Built-in credibility – Associating with Kochi Metro signals reliability and civic relevance to the public You surely have the option to spend big on associating with a celebrity – you could ride on the wave of popularity and warmth they bring in – but one mishap by them in front of the public and you are running to your lawyers to cut ties with them. Kochi Metro does not carry that kind of baggage and in a world where perception can shift overnight, that kind of safety net is priceless. Branding Opportunities at Kochi Metro You could run an ad for your business at the movies, inside a grocery store, or put up a billboard next to that busy junction everyone hates but none of it quite compares to advertising at Kochi Metro. The ad spaces available through Zero Degree span the full stretch of the metro network. They grab the attention of not just the metro commuters but also people using the roads running parallel to the tracks. With exclusive rights to advertise on metro pillars, medians, portals, and station premises, Zero Degree makes it easy for businesses to associate with Kochi Metro. Through a single agency, one can achieve maximum visibility across the metro. Metro Pillar Branding – Repetition Builds Recall! Rising above the city traffic, the many pillars of Kochi Metro are literally carrying the network on its shoulders. Around 1080 metro pillars have been leased to Zero Degree, one of South India’s largest out-of-home (OOH) advertising agencies. These pillars are now available for businesses looking to claim space in the urban visual landscape. Branding on Kochi metro pillars is a powerful way to reach road commuters. With pillars spaced roughly 15 to 20 meters apart, advertisers can use repetition to register their brand in people’s memory. A series of related visuals can spark curiosity, prompting onlookers to look out for what appears on the next pillar. Metro Station Branding – Right Place, Right Time, Right Audience Between clearing the turnstile and boarding the metro train, a commuter typically spends at least five minutes at a station. People wait and look around patiently. The well-maintained infrastructure and a relative calm – compared to the rush outside – makes them more receptive to their surroundings. This creates an ideal setting for brands to communicate directly with an attentive audience. Zero Degree’s strategically placed billboards and ad panels at entry points, near ticket counters, escalators and waiting areas offer high-impact solutions for businesses looking to advertise at Kochi Metro stations. With steady footfall and repeat exposure, Kochi Metro station branding ensures your message consistently lands in front of the right eyes, again and again. Metro Station Semi Naming Rights If you have walked past the Palarivattom metro station recently, you might have noticed something new – it is now Palarivattom Eastea, wrapped in the calming blues of the popular tea brand. Through Zero Degree, businesses now have the opportunity to acquire semi naming rights to metro stations in Kochi. Benefits of Metro Station Naming Rights: Add your brand name as a suffix to an existing station Wrap the station in your brand’s colours and themes Capture the attention of both metro riders and road commuters It’s the closest you can get your brand to Kochi Metro Build a long-term, location-based brand association in people’s minds KMRL has been leasing more and more stations to the metro station branding agency, Zero Degree. As a result, the most impactful OOH advertising in Kochi is now happening at the very places where people begin and end their journeys each day. Let Your Brand Ride With Kochi Metro In a world where brands are constantly trying to stand out, Kochi Metro offers not just visibility – but credibility. It’s not a celebrity with a volatile public image. It’s a public institution that is respected, consistent, and key to everyday life in a major city. With Zero Degree by your side, your business can become a part of the city’s rhythm, woven into the daily journeys of thousands. The tracks are laid. Kochi is watching.Where will your brand go next? FAQs What are the benefits of advertising with Kochi Metro? Kochi Metro offers high visibility and repeated exposure to a captive audience. Unlike othermodes of advertisement, your brand becomes part of the city's landscape and daily commuterexperience. What are the advertising options available through Kochi Metro? Through Zero Degree OOH, you can advertise on Kochi Metro’s 1000+ metro pillars, inside thestations and more. You can also obtain semi naming rights for Kochi Metro stations throughZero Degree. There are also options to wrap the metro coaches with your brand’sadvertisements. Who manages the advertising rights for Kochi Metro? Zero Degree, a leading out-of-home (OOH) agency in South India, holds exclusive rights foradvertising on Kochi Metro's pillars, medians, portals, and station premises. What is metro pillar branding? Kochi Metro’s pillars are spaced every 15 to 20 meters, allowing businesses to create asequence of visuals along a commuter’s journey. This repetition helps reinforce brand memoryeffectively. What are metro station semi naming rights? Semi naming rights allow your brand name to be added to a metro station (e.g., "PalarivattomEastea") along with branding the station environment in your colors. It establishes strong localassociation and high long-term visibility. How can I start advertising on Kochi Metro? You can contact Zero Degree, the authorized agency, to learn about all the available advertisingoptions at Kochi Metro with its detailed pricing.

May 16, 2025

How Programmatic Advertising is Changing the Game!

Imagine you run a small bakery in your town and you want to target the right customers. You know your customers love fresh pastries in the morning! But you also know that every day new people move into the neighborhood. How do you reach them? Before you might have had flyers, or placed an ad in the local newspaper, hoping the right people would see it. But today, advertising has evolved. Now, think about a digital billboard that automatically displays your ad for your bakery only during peak morning hours to commuters looking for pastries. Even better, imagine this happening automatically. And you don’t have to guess where to place the ad. Sounds perfect, right? That's the magic of programmatic digital-out-of-home (prDOOH) advertising. It connects businesses with the right customers at the right time! What Is Programmatic Advertising? ● Automated Process PrDOOH is the automated buying and placement of ads on digital billboards. Advertisers use Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs)—software tools that automate the buying of ad space. ● Real-Time Bidding It uses algorithmic software to buy ad space dynamically, ensuring cost-efficient and timely placements. ● No Manual Negotiations Unlike traditional ad buying, there are no salespeople negotiating deals or signing papers. ● Data-Driven Targeting It leverages real-time data, such as weather, traffic patterns, and audience demographics, to display ads when they will be most effective. ➔ Location Data: Where the screen is placed (airport, mall, highway, etc.)➔ Time: Morning coffee ads? Evening dinner promos? Timing matters.➔ Weather Conditions: Sunscreen ads during sunny days, or soup ads during rain.➔ Audience Movement Data: Using anonymous mobile data or sensors to estimate foot traffic. Why Programmatic Advertising? ● Precision Targeting –It uses live data to target audiences on demographics, interests, behaviors, and even location. ● Scalability – Programmatic advertising can help a small business and a global brand reach the right audience across multiple locations simultaneously. ● Efficiency – No need to spend hours negotiating ad placements. The system does it for you, allowing marketers to focus on strategy and creativity. ● Better ROI – You end up spending a lot less on ads that work and a lot more on ads that get you conversions with data-driven targeting. Key Benefits of prDOOH Advertising ● Improved Targeting By analyzing data on consumer behaviors and movement patterns, advertisers can target specific demographics and display messages only in high-traffic locations at the right times. ● Greater Flexibility Campaigns can be modified in real time. It enables advertisers to quickly adapt to market trends or external factors. This helps maximize ad spend and effectiveness. ● Increased Brand Exposure Digital displays positioned in high-footfall locations. It increases visibility, attracting the attention of consumers as they go about their daily lives. ● Ad Analytics Provides advertisers with insights into their ad performance in real time. It allows for better decision-making. How to Succeed with prDOOH Advertising ● Understand the Market Before diving in, take the time to learn about programmatic advertising. Get to know the terms, platforms and how it is being used by your competition in the industry. ● Define Your Goals 1. Do you want to increase foot traffic to your store? 2. Are you looking to build brand awareness? 3. Do you want to promote limited-time offers? Having clear objectives helps in crafting a more effective ad strategy. ● Balance Automation with the Human Touch Although programmatic ads use AI to improve prDOOH campaigns, human monitoring is crucial. Marketers need to consistently track results and fine-tune strategies. ● Protect Your Brand Automation has a danger of putting advertisements on inappropriate locations. Update your blacklist to avoid this and use a whitelist to facilitate ads on reliable brand-safe locations for this. ● Guard Against Ad Fraud Work with reputable prDOOH programmatic platforms and monitor your campaign metrics closely to prevent fraudulent activities. How It Works: Real-Life Success Stories 1. Magners - Location-Based Retargeting Popular cider brand Magners employed geo-fencing technology with prDOOH ads to reach new audiences in four major cities in the UK. They served ads to those in real-time who were most likely to purchase event tickets, resulting in all advertising events being sold out. 2. Child Rescue Alert — Programmatic Ads with Purpose A non-profit organization used programmatic ads to help find missing children. Switching to programmatic out-of-home (prDOOH) advertising improved their rate of success from 50% to 70%, proving smart ad placements make a real-world impact. 3. Audi – AI Driven Personalized Ads Audi used prDOOH ads to serve personalized vehicle designs in order to promote a customizable vehicle. This led to 4x (four times!) conversion rates compared to regular ad methods! The Future of Programmatic Advertising As global programmatic ad spend is projected to exceed $594 billion in 2024, the prDOOH industry will continue to grow. And as AI evolves further, we’ll see increased targeting, improved fraud detection, and more tailored experiences. Final Thoughts In today’s digital world, programmatic digital billboards are no longer optional but imperative. Programmatic digital out-of-home ads are not the future; they are the now, and whether you are a startup or an industry titan, they can lift your marketing strategy to the next level. So, who’s ready to let AI and data do the work for you? Start exploring the world of prDOOH today and watch your brand shine on the streets!

May 1, 2025

Can India Catch Up? The Untapped Potential of 3D DOOH in Indian Cities

You are on your way to work and the train is late, again! The morning rush is in full swing and you somehow elbow your way out of the train station. The crowd around you is flowing like a river and everyone is in a hurry to get somewhere. Your mind is calculating how many seconds you have left before your boss calls you asking where you are. And then - Meeeooow. It’s soft at first, but unmistakable. You turn, half-distracted, expecting a stray cat. But what you see next short-circuits your sense of logic. You forget about your job, your boss and everything else because there is a gigantic cat on the side of a tall building! Not a poster, not a cartoon - a giant, hyper-realistic, breathing, blinking cat, chilling in a digital box like it owns the space. It turns its head. Its fur catches the light. Its tail flicks lazily over the edge of the building like gravity doesn’t matter. People stop. They stare. Phones go up. Time freezes. Your brain is smart enough to remind you that it is some kind of a digital display but it can't figure out why the cat is sticking out of the building... Why is it 3-dimensional! 3D Billboards: The Game Changer in OOH Advertising What we just mentioned would be an instance of you coming across a 3D Anamorphic Billboard. It might feel like a thing of the future except it isn’t. 3D billboards that integrate 3D technology, known as anamorphosis or forced perspective to achieve a realistic effect, are already grabbing the attention of millions across major cities of the world such as Tokyo, New York and London. Some have even popped up in Indian cities like Mumbai and Kochi. You might have come across viral videos of the same on the internet. Anamorphic illusion technology makes what’s otherwise flat 2D visuals appear as if they are popping out of the screen or floating in the air, giving viewers a fun and memorable experience. Creating the illusion requires a mix of creative design, advanced technology, and careful calculations to make sure it looks perfect from the right viewing angle. This has easily become a game changer in the Digital Out of Home (DOOH) advertising industry. The novelty of large 3D billboards coupled with a curiosity about the technologies behind them makes viewers spend more time fixated on the advertisement than they would otherwise spend in front of an LED wall. The Many Advantages of 3D Billboards These 3D anamorphic displays are not just mere head-turners, the prospects they unfold often include: High Engagement : People don’t just stare at these mega displays, they capture it on their smartphones, share it on social media, and naturally become a topic of conversation. Media Coverage : Unique 3D campaigns don’t just stay as a topic of conversation between a few, they often end up as talk of the town, which then gets picked up by mainstream media who catapults it even further. Enhanced Brand Recall : Brands that feature on these innovative media often get a lasting impression on the minds of people - it is not just a random brand on a random display. Premium Perception : The rarity of 3D billboards naturally shapes a perception in the minds of onlookers that the brands featuring on it must be premium. Unlocking New Type of Creatives : Brands get the opportunity to incorporate the 3rd dimension of space to tell their story. This opens a wide range of possibilities for content that can’t be done with regular formats. The India Story of 3D DOOH Ads While Asian countries like Japan, South Korea and China were the first to embrace this form of Out-Of-Home (OOH) advertisement in its full glory, 3D anamorphic billboards have eventually found their way to Indian cities as well. This kind of advertising might seem as quite fitting for a market like India where there are numerous cities bustling with scores of people. But it is to be noted that there are also certain factors that deter the widescale adaptation of the same in India. 3D DOOH is Expensive Traditional billboards with printed visuals and digital billboards featuring thousands of LED modules pale in comparison to 3D anamorphic billboards. They rely on: Ultra-high-definition LED screens, often curved to enhance depth perception Powerful content engines to render 3D animations Specialized 3D content production (planning, design, animation, mathematical calculations, etc.) This level of complexity makes 3D anamorphic ads so expensive that even prospective clients might doubt the ROI. Limited Viewability A fundamental limitation of anamorphic 3D displays is that they rely heavily on perspective. The illusion works only when viewed from a very specific angle. This makes placement absolutely critical. Now, while cities like New York, Tokyo, or Seoul offer the perfect setup - tall buildings, wide intersections, and heavy pedestrian traffic - most Indian cities present a very different urban landscape. The streets can be narrow, uneven, or overly congested with vehicles rather than walkable pedestrian spaces. To make the most impact, a 3D billboard ideally needs to be mounted high on a building and positioned at just the right spot where a large number of people can view it from the optimal angle. That kind of setup is tough to find in most Indian cities. As a result, limited viewability becomes a major barrier to wide-scale adoption. While the financial and physical aspects of setting up 3D billboards are major challenges for India’s OOH advertising industry, there are a few other hurdles as well. Some of these include: High Maintenance Needs Climate & Environmental Conditions Permits and Licensing Challenges Does this mean that you won’t be seeing a gigantic 3D cat on a building anytime soon? Not at all! In fact, there are plenty of factors that put India on the path to becoming one of the largest markets for 3D anamorphic advertising technology. The Impending 3D DOOH Boom in Indian Cities A fact no one needs reminding of is that India is the world’s most populous country. There are more people to sell to here than anywhere else in the world - and the purchasing power of its citizens is growing rapidly. More Eyes Than Anywhere Else Anamorphic technology-backed DOOH billboards are designed to target large gatherings of people at once—and large crowds are the norm in Indian cities. Yes, the cities themselves struggle with not being particularly pedestrian-friendly. However, this is a well-recognized issue, and recent urban planning efforts have begun addressing it. Many Indian cities are undergoing smart city transformations and this creates opportunities for integrating digital billboards into new urban spaces such as metro stations. Creative Talent Pool at Home It’s fair to say that Indians are generally tech-savvy, with a large talent pool of skilled professionals in sectors like VFX, design, and AR/VR. Several large media firms already serve clients across the globe, which means content for 3D billboards can be produced locally. This has the potential to significantly reduce production costs. A Market Ready for Disruption Indian brands are increasingly seeking media that breaks the norm and helps them stand out. With its high-impact visuals and immersive appeal, 3D DOOH offers the kind of ‘wow’ factor that’s perfect for product launches, movie promotions, and festival campaigns. At the same time, major players in the out-of-home advertising space, such as Zero Degree, are actively exploring new technologies to offer clients cutting-edge solutions. Since 3D DOOH is still a budding niche, early adopters have a real opportunity to establish themselves as pioneers, accelerating not just adoption but also innovation in the Indian market. Conclusion: A Future That’s Almost Here 3D billboards may seem like a futuristic concept that belongs to the skylines of Tokyo or New York, but it’s already knocking on India’s door. Yes, there are challenges - be it cost, placement, or infrastructure - but the potential is far too big to ignore. With a rapidly evolving urban landscape, a tech-savvy creative industry, and brands eager to stand out, India is poised to be a major player in this emerging format. The gigantic cat and more visuals like that might not be present above every intersection just yet - but if the right steps are taken, it won’t be long before 3D anamorphic billboards decorate Indian cities in numbers. The question isn’t whether India can catch up, but rather - how fast it chooses to leap.

April 11, 2025

A Dynamic, Mobile Advertising Platform

Revolutionising New York’s Advertising Ecosystem

Strategic Partnership: Screenverse and SOMO

Impact on New York City’s Urban Landscape

Future of Urban Advertising