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Raja Simhan T.E.

Technology is changing the contours of billboard painting, but it's also displacing traditional painters.

GANESH, 45, a billboard painter, dejectedly goes along Chennai's arterial Anna Salai on a Sunday night. He is looking at the numerous billboards adorned with dazzling advertisements.

Till a year ago, Ganesh used to display his painting skill and creativity on the hundreds of billboards. However, today, he is among the last of the breed even as technology has taken over billboards. "Everything is technology. Hundreds of artists like me have lost jobs," he says.

In the US, billboards went high-tech about a decade ago and almost eliminated the billboard painters. In India, the concept of technology-driven billboards started a couple of years ago, and is slowly transforming the plywood and steel boards into durable vinyl that can be cut to any size, then rolled for easy shipping.

And the billboard that took Ganesh a week, or even a month to paint, now, can be rolled out using digital printers within hours. Technology-enabled processes save money for out-door advertisers, and in turn for the final clients.

One of the companies leading the change in India is the Chennai-based Cactus Imaging India Private Ltd, a 50:50 joint venture between Cactus Imaging, Australia and Bee Vee Graphics. The company produces medium and large outdoor advertisements for billboards, and small-size indoor advertisements. The company generates high-resolution colour images, which are then projected onto tough, durable vinyl surfaces. Says Parveen Ahluwalia, Director and Sales Marketing, Cactus Imaging India, thanks to technology, hand-painted billboards would be redundant in about five years in metropolitan cities. In rural markets, the change would take more time. Three to four years ago, outdoor advertising budgets for major companies was less than 10 per cent, even as a majority of the advertisements went to television.

However, thanks to technology-backed billboards, today the outdoor advertisement budget is about 25 per cent for large companies in sectors such as telecom, FMCG, and automobile. "Today, clients can rely on uniform reproduction of their advertisement so that an image looks the same in every city," he says.

EDP gives the edge

Cactus uses Electro Dot Placement (EDP), a technology pioneered by the US-based Impact Imaging since 1995. Ahead of both inkjet and paint-jet printing, the EDP involves electrically-charged tiny droplets of ink and subsequently using electrical pulses to precisely place the dots in an image. This results in a deceptively detailed image, says Ahluwalia.

The ink is delivered through a `continuous ink jet (CIJ)' as opposed to `drop on demand (DoD)'' technology. The CIJ leads to consistent colour while DoD is suited for closed viewed applications, he says.

At Cactus, the whole process, right from art submission by an advertising agent to the final print, is IT-driven. In the conventional way, an advertising company would provide an artwork to Ganesh to paint in a billboard. However, today, the advertising company provides images, normally shot on digital camera for better quality, to Cactus in a CD. The image is then scanned at the pre-press centre for the right size and resolution, and sent to the production centre through an internal network. The production centre captures the image, and sends it to print. All these take only a few seconds, says a Cactus official.

At the production centre, a person uses a PC to control the printing. Digital images for advertisements are printed on big poster panels of vinyl that are then tied to the billboard frame.

Says the official, the company has three stand-alone brands tailor-made for the Indian market - Cactus Gold, Cactus Silver and Cactus Cash.

Cactus Gold is the lead brand using premium inks and vinyls specially developed by Cactus Imaging, Australia. "It delivers vibrant image in large format digital applications and is guaranteed not to fade for 18 months," he says. Cactus Silver and Cactus Cash have been developed keeping price-conscious clients in mind, and both carry a guarantee of about nine months. Thanks to technology, the time needed to get a campaign up and running on multiple billboards has been cut from a month to a few days. "The images printed on flexible vinyl also give advertisers creative versatility, vibrant colour, durability and precise image reproduction," he says.

Says Ahluwalia, about 30 per cent of billboards in major metropolitans have changed to vinyl, while in a few years the percentage would more than double. The average sq. ft. per billboard size was 20X60. "Companies today want a life-like image of their brand. Vinyl and technology provide that kind of image," he says.

Technology is helping Cactus in the entire production process and helps the company in integrating all facets of its functions — right from initiating a quote to purchase to account management to production and then finally invoicing and dispatch. Enabling this is How 9000, Cactus Imaging's ERP (employee resource planning). Developed by Impact Imaging, US, the ERP is unique to the Indian large format digital printing industry, he says.

According to P. Kumaran, Assistant Sales Manager, Cactus Imaging India, all information — right from pre-press to despatch — is available on a real-time basis. Further, through the company's Web site, a client can access the status of job work. This reduces interaction with the customer care service. On the marketing side, looking at the computer, Kumaran can give a commitment to his client on the exact date of despatch of the materials. Further, the relevant information can be retrieved both online as well as sent by e-mail to key clients to provide real-time progress of specific job/s campaigns, says Kumaran.

Cactus Imaging India's clients include ITC Ltd, Airtel, Radio Mirchi, Coca-Cola, Seagrams's, Intel, Hyundai, Hutch, Titan, Royal Sundaram, Nokia, Citibank, Maruti, Samsung, Ford, Escotel and Ruggers.

raja@thehindu.co.in

Picture by Bijoy Ghosh

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