So we thought he would give us a politically correct answer. And tell us that our data is perhaps wrong. But, while he hasn’t taken names, he does some plainspeak here. Enough to make you wonder what he has said? Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the August 30 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…
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Q. Advertising volumes in the television news genre in H1 of 2023 have degrown 6% from 2021. Doesn’t look too good for a sector that expects to make hay with a big election year coming up?
A. I agree with the concern expressed by you in the context of H1 2023 growth of advertising business. But you know it is more a systemic issue as opposed to a specific sectoral issue or a specific issue for a part of the year. I think one has to accept that advertisers are under pressure because of multiple environmental factors and performance-led evaluation of investment has become the order of the day. The media owners have to understand it that they have to get used to an omnichannel environment where an inter-category comparison of delivery would always happen, including individual priorities for particular formats of media depending on the category of business. Media owners need to invest in research, both quantitative and qualitative, and ensure a more customer-centric approach to give assurance to the advertisers about a better value for their investment. I don’t see any major effort in that direction. When the external environment has changed, the practice of media owners continues to follow the same route and same root of promotion. The sales team needs upskilling to understand and internalise the new world order where there must be better understanding what the customers – in this case advertisers – expect from them to deliver. Because advertisers have also a compulsion to deliver to their customer, to their stakeholders to ensure that there is a better business outcome and better customer experience vis-a-vis. Till that is understood, the volatility of investment in advertising will continue. The advertising and media industries need to come together or work independently to reconstruct their way of viewing the new world order.