OOH:

OOH was given a boost with the advent of large format spectaculars and digital printing in
the nineties; companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Pakistan Tobacco Company and Unilever
were among the first to invest in these new formats that provided both scale and impact.

All the top brands soon followed suit. Along with this, came a shift in pricing. The earlier
hand-painted boards cost only a few thousand rupees annually; now prices went into
hundreds of thousands per month. Despite this, huge structures started proliferating across the
major three cities and city municipal authorities started to impose taxes on them, which were
then used to develop the city landscape.

In this respect, Lahore owes a lot to the outdoor industry, given that the city’s horticulture
landscape was mainly funded by taxes collected from the outdoor media. So aggressively did
the authorities collect funds in exchange for permission to erect billboards that an
unprecedented number of structures went up between 2000 and 2010, especially in Lahore.
Inevitably, clutter began to compromise the effectiveness of the medium and in 2008, the
Punjab Government took measures to rationalise the installation of outdoor structures.

All billboards in Lahore were removed by the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) and
bylaws were enacted to prevent their installation. This was a blessing in disguise as the
reduction in the clutter enhanced the effectiveness of the medium, and brands started
reassessing OOH with renewed interest, leading to a demand for further innovation, such as
backlit billboards and large cut-outs.

With new options coming on stream, the need for specialised planning and execution
agencies arose and the concept of outdoor media agencies (OMA) started taking hold –
pioneered by Unilever with the appointment of Adservice, and Nestlé with the appointment of
Adkings.

TV:
In 1999, there were three channels in Pakistan: PTV, PTV World and NTM (which shut down
a year later). Dealing with TV then was easier. The monopoly (and the monotony) of PTV
were finally broken in the early nineties when communication satellites began to orbit above
our region. If ever there was an effective means to break down cultural barriers, this was it!
The beauty of satellite power was that it remained free from the reach of local censors.
Suddenly, audiences in Pakistan were experiencing the pleasure – unhindered – of getting
hooked on Indian soaps.

Satellite dishes became ubiquitous on rooftops in urban areas. The high cost of purchase,
however, did limit its spread and it was cable television that later brought globalisation to
even the remotest parts of Pakistan. PTV itself started full-scale satellite broadcasting in
1991-92 and PTV 2, the first ever satellite channel of Pakistan, was launched in 1992.

Print:

The impact of satellite and cable was also noticeable on the print media. Traditionally staid,
Pakistan’s print media was suddenly faced with audiences increasingly drawn to both a
sensational type of reporting (best exemplified by the ‘breaking news’ phenomenon) and the
glamour of the entertainment world. Moreover, the hunger for content soon became
insatiable. This created an opportunity for the expansion of the print media.
A 1988 Power Shoes print ad featuring the then Pakistan star cricketer and captain,
Imran Khan.
A late 1980s soap ad featuring Pakistani opening batsman, Ramiz Raja.
A 1990 magazine ad of PIA featuring the then Squash World No: 1, Jahangir Khan.
Magazine ad for the 1990 Hockey World Cup which was held in Lahore.
A 1994 Pepsi magazine ad featuring the time’s leading Pakistani pop band, the Vital
Signs.
A Rooh Afza magazine ad for August 14.
A press ad glorifying Gen Parvez Musharraf who toppled the Nawaz Sharif government
in 1999. Musharraf became President till he was forced to resign after his ‘king’s party’,
the PML-Q was routed by the PPP and PML-N in the 2008 election.

A positive outcome of this cross-media ownership was that many stories, particularly of
human rights violations, once confined to the pages of newspapers, began to be reported on
the cable channels of the same media group leading to greater awareness and – in many cases
– action by the authorities.

The Urdu print media did show some growth as evening newspapers proliferated. Most tried
to capitalise on the hunger for glamour and gossip promoted by cable television. Express, a
qualitatively better Urdu language newspaper in terms of editorial content, layout and
printing, was launched from more stations than even Jang. However, evening newspapers
became early victims of the 24-hour news channels, where every news item appeared as
‘breaking news’. One by one, the English language evening papers shut down.