Zen Digital Media’s floating DOOH features live events too

Zen Digital Media,  which has an advertising platform on a ship called ‘Broadcoasters’, recently made it to the Limca Book of Records. With a 20m x 5m wide LED screen it is the largest LED display screen on water in India.

The company currently has two vessels with LED screens on board - one near the Juhu coastline and the other near the Bandra Kurla complex in Mumbai.

“This idea to bring DOOH on water came to me in 2017. Mumbai has a large coastline. Aesthetically speaking, traditional DOOHs weren’t really appealing. So, this idea of having something more aesthetically pleasing on the coastline, came up,” Sanjay Raval, co-founder, Zen Digital Media, tells afaqs!. The vessel was then launched in 2021.

After conceptualising the floating DOOHs, Raval then assembled a team of marine engineers, architects, etc., to develop the vessel. The idea was then pitched to the authorities, the Maritime Board that framed policies for this particular type of DOOH.

These days, a company needs to buy a tender to float such OOH advertising. After buying the tender and getting permissions from various departments, the company started constructing the vessels.

“The vessels were specially designed in a way they could take wind pressure, wind load and bear the weight of the screen,” Raval shares.

The company places the vessels in locations that aren’t cluttered with other OOHs so that visibility isn’t compromised. Brands like Amazon Prime, boAt, Coca-Cola, WeWork, Citibank, among others, have made use of ‘Broadcoasters’.

Raval informs that smartphone manufacturer OnePlus launched a smartphone on one of the vessels, using programmatic mode of DOOH to maximise visibility.

The cost of floating an ad on the floating DOOH is premium. Raval explains that the reason for this is that operational costs as well as investments in the construction of the vessels, are high.

“We’re also bringing in the concept of live events, like the one we did on Republic Day (January 26) this year. We showed the Republic Day parade live on our vessels.”