MxMIndia

Category: ADVERTISING

  • To allow end-to-end planning for fragmented target audiences

    Wavemaker rolls out AI-powered platform Maximize

    By Our Staff

     

    Wavemaker has completed the global roll-out of a new AI-powered media planning platform, Maximize, that allows planners to create media plans to reach multiple audiences and optimise media investments in just a matter of minutes.

    Said Toby Jenner, Global CEO of Wavemaker: “Maximize addresses one of the industry’s longest standing frustrations – that all media plans look the same. Pre-loaded with strong data sources and packed with AI, Maximize produces media plans at incredible speed and has the brainpower to create market-beating growth plans for our clients. It is already delivering results, producing media plans that are on average 30% more effective for clients and in pitches, helping us reach the ranking of most successful media agency in the COMvergence new business barometer for Q1-Q3 2020.”

    Added Stephan Bruneau, Global Head of Product at Wavemaker: “Creating media plans has become challenging due to the increased number of audience segments that need to be included in a campaign. Some can overlap significantly, with people belonging to multiple audience segments at risk of being ‘over exposed’ to ads and creating an unnecessary waste of money for clients. Maximize uses techniques and technology rarely used in the marketing industry and is effectively the only way to solve the audience fragmentation problem.”

    Said Stephan Pretorius, Global Chief Technology Officer at WPP: “AI has extended its sphere of influence to many aspects of marketing, but until now not in media planning.  Wavemaker’s exciting new AI-powered planning platform Maximize is set to transform the way its teams work and empower its planners to produce the most effective and efficient media plans yet for clients in an increasingly complex and fragmented media landscape.”

     

     

  • Ropes in top health and wellness experts

    Publicis launches PubFit for employees

    By Our Staff

     

    Publicis Groupe India has designed a holistic and first of its kind health and wellness programme for its 4000+ workforce called PubFit. It has partnered with Human Edge, a business platform that teams up with key stakeholders to deliver Advocacy and Interventions to champion holistic well-being.

    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, Publicis Groupe South Asia CEO: “Year 2020 has underscored the importance of strength and resilience in the face of uncertainty, chaos and fragility. It is amply clear that while we cannot control circumstances and events, we can certainly control our response, reaction and hence their impact on us. PubFit is a carefully designed, richly curated programme that gears up the entire organisation towards a fulfilling health, wellness and fitness journey. We believe that strong and resilient people not only make for strong antifragile organisations but also happier homes and more resolute societies.”

    Added Dr Marcus Ranney, Founder & CEO of Human Edge: “It is my pleasure to partner with Publicis Groupe in this remarkable endeavour. The sign of a progressive, future-ready organisation is that they keep employee wellbeing at the centre of whatever they do and do not lose sight of it while charting out organisational goals. With PubFit launch, we streamed ourselves in the homes of over 4000 employees. A war cry, a rallying call, this is one of the strongest messages I have ever witnessed a company leadership make and am so excited to be a partner with them in this journey.”

     

     

  • Stresses the airlines vision for regional connectivity

    Havas bags creative mandate of Flybig airlines

    By Our Staff

     

    Flybig awarded its creative communication mandate to Havas Creative India. As part of the mandate, Havas Creative will be handling integrated creative and media duties for Flybig. The agency kickstarts the brand’s journey with a communication that sends out a clear and targeted message – “it’s time to get ambitions soaring, it’s time to flybig”.

    Capt Srinivas Rao

    Said Capt Srinivas Rao, CEO, Flybig: “Flybig is committed to the vision of regional connectivity and its role and as enabler for development of the Tier 2-3 cities which represent the emerging India. For our communication mandate, we were looking for a partner who can understand what the brand stands for and then articulate it in a manner that resonates with our target audiences.  We are pleased to have found this in Havas and we look forward to their contributions in this critical phase in our journey.”

    Manas Lahiri

    Added Manas Lahiri, President – North, Havas Creative India: “We are excited to have landed the integrated communication mandate for India’s newest, most-convenient friendly airline, Flybig. It is indeed a challenging and demanding year for the airline industry given the renewed rules, and guidelines for travel due to Covid. Flybig’s unique proposition and innovative approach along with Havas Group’s combined expertise will together drive the brand journey to greater and meaningful heights. We look forward to this partnership and an exciting take off!”

     

     

  • To draw up a growth plan for increased customer engagement

    Madison BMB bags More Supermarket

    By Our Staff

    More Retail Limited has awarded the creative duties of its chain of supermarkets to Madison BMB.

    Said Sashi Gumma, CEO, Supermarkets:  “We were looking at a communications specialist who would demonstrate deep insights into our evolving category and had creative acumen to understand our Consumer Value Proposition. In Madison BMB, we found an accomplished and energetic team that could relate to our vision for More Supermarkets and draw up a growth path for our brand in the form of a clear and sharply defined communication plan.”

    Added Raj Nair, CEO and CCO, Madison BMB: “More Retail is a force to reckon with. Their ambitious growth plans for Supermarkets are reflected in their meticulously mapped buyer behaviour and their insightful product assortment.  What we’ve done is infused simplicity, relevance and an in-depth understanding of local tastes and culture into the brand story, particularly in the topical context of safety and health. We look forward to providing ample food for thought on this very exciting and fulfilling brand journey.”

  • To deliver digital solutions to brands in the region

    Digital Refresh Networks expands to Cal

    By Our Staff

     

    Digital Refresh Networks (DRN)  has launched its full-scale operations in Kolkata, effective February 2021.

    Barin Mukherjee
    Barin Mukherjee

    Said Barin Mukherjee, Co-Founder and CEO, Digital Refresh Networks (DRN): “We have been active in the digital marketing domain for a decade now, and have created innovative solutions for organisations, from start-ups to large-scale businesses, whether they be founder-led or institutionalised corporates. With our full-scale operations in Kolkata, we aim to deliver the best digital solutions to brands in the region, and help them elevate the digital reach and engagement. We are excited to be a part of this growth journey that the city has to offer, and believe that we can offer tremendous value to companies wishing to build on their digital presence.”

     

     

  • Nudges couples on Valentine's Day

    Ogilvy creates new ad for Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk

    By Our Staff

     

    Ogilvy created a new ad series for Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk. The campaign has six videos.

    Said Zenobia Pithawalla, Senior Executive Creative Director & Mihir Chanchani, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy India: “Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day like never before. By giving young people in love ideas, on how to celebrate Valentine’s Day in these tough times. Tying in aptly with its larger communication idea, ‘How far will you go for love’.”

    Added Neville Shah, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy India said: “These simple stories attempt to inspire couples to surprise their partners. It’s not about the bigness of the act. It’s about the grandness of the thought. And that’s the simple intent. We designed them for short format surfaces and deployed them episodically, increasing the interest with each asset. A campaign designed for love. Simple.”

    Said Anil Viswanathan, Senior Director, Marketing (Chocolates), Insights and Analytics, Mondelez India: “Being synonymous with Valentine’s Day for almost a decade, Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk has been inspiring consumers to celebrate the season of romance and making the day count in their love story. Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk has built and strengthened consumer love and connect with youth in India through relevant storytelling and personalised offerings. Our recent campaign “How Far Will You Go For Love” was received very well, winning consumers hearts especially with Gen Z strengthening overall brand appeal and emotional connect with this audience. Valentine’s Day is an important day in our consumer’s life, and they believe in making the day count. They know that words often fall short to express their deepest emotions for the dear ones in their lives and they share a special bond with Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk to express themselves.”

    Added Shekhar Banerjee, Chief Client Officer and Head – West, Wavemaker India: “The year gone by has been quite different and difficult for most of us and especially for young couples who have been staying away from their partner / loved ones. Going into this year’s Valentine’s Day we managed to bring the brand much more integral to expressing love. We went an extra mile to make Valentine’s Day furthermore special for young couples through custom partnerships with web series and showcasing true inspiring stories in association with Humans of Bombay and Terribly Tiny Tales”

     

     

  • Shubhangi Mehta joins H+K India as Director of Content + Publishing Strategy

    Hill+Knowlton gets ex-MxMer Shubhangi Mehta to lead content strategies

    By Our Staff

     

    Shubhangi Mehta
    Shubhangi Mehta

    We are delighted to record this. Hill+Knowlton Strategies (H+K) has expanded Content + Publishing Strategy to its India operations. And to head up this business, the WPP-owned agency has hired a former MxMIndia team member Shubhangi Mehta as Director of Content + Publishing Strategy.

     

    Abhishek Gulyani
    Abhishek Gulyani

    Said Abhishek Gulyani, CEO for Hill+Knowlton Strategies India:  “I am very excited to launch our Content + Publishing Strategy specialism in India, furthering our content marketing capabilities across the country. We believe purpose driven communications along with high impact innovative campaigns help brands to standout and build key differentiators. We welcome Shubhangi into the H+K family. Clients increasingly look to H+K for deeper understanding of content trends to help align their communications and business objectives. With Shubhangi’s extensive experience and in-depth knowledge, she will bring fresh thinking, perspective and ideas for our clients across varied sectors. The new Content + Publishing Strategy offering is a part of our overall strategy to provide integrated communications to clients and we will continue expanding the space in the years ahead.”

  • Ad investment expected to reach Rs 80,123 crore, notes the This Year Next Year report

    Achche Din… GroupM forecasts 23.2% in CY2021

    GroupM share of adspend

     

    By Our Staff

     

    GroupM India has announced its advertising expenditure (AdEx) forecasts for 2021. As per the GroupM futures report ‘This Year, Next Year’ (TYNY) 2021, India will see a major ad recovery in 2021 given the downfall of ad spends in 2020 due to the pandemic.

     

    TYNY forecasts India’s advertising investment to reach an estimated Rs. 80,123 crores this year. This represents an estimated growth of 23.2%, for the calendar year 2021. India is the 2nd fastest growing market in the top 10 countries and will be the 6th largest contributor to incremental ad spends in 2021 globally. While India was ranked 9th in the global ad spend rank in 2019, it dropped to 10 in 2020 and is likely to regain its 9th rank this year.

     

    Prasanth Kumar, CEO - GroupM South Asia
    Prasanth Kumar

    Commenting on the TYNY 2021 report, Prasanth Kumar, CEO – GroupM South Asia said, “2020 was an unprecedented year. The pandemic impacted across sectors and it, therefore, affected the media investments too. As we are aware, the year that went by had a mixture of lockdowns, many restricted market momentum and overall threw a challenge and impacted multi-industry economies. The ad industry too had its challenges and 2020 witnessed a steep drop in the overall media investments. However, we have witnessed a month-on-month upturn in the industry starting Q3 last year and we are quite optimistic about the revival that 2021 will see. With the gradual easement of the lockdown backed by seasonal spends and big-ticket events like IPL, we expect 2021 to continue to build on that momentum. While the global ad spends are estimated to see a rise of 10% in 2021, digital is expected to take 67% of ad spends. With the help of technology, marketers have adapted to pandemic-proof ways by constantly innovating, staying relevant and offering digitally charged solutions to brands.”

     

    Digital was the only medium to witness a gain of USD 27bn globally in 2020. Digital as a media vehicle will continue to skyrocket due to the increase in digital dependency and changing consumer patterns.

     

    Tushar Vyas, GroupM
    Tushar Vyas

    Added Tushar Vyas, President – Growth and Transformation, GroupM South Asia: “2021 will see 90% incremental ad spends on digital globally. The massive switch to digital reliance over the past 1 year has been a major driver for this shift. Brands have been forced to think big and different to transform their businesses, match the newer expectations and overcome the challenges faced. The post-pandemic era will continue to see this upsurge in digital demands. The crisis has brought about a sea change in mindset, adoption, and role of technology in doing business. Brands are seen renewing their business models and are constantly ideating to find better ways to connect with the consumer on a digital tangent.”

     

    Ashwin Padmanabhan
    Ashwin Padmanabhan

    While Covid-19 resulted in an overall slowdown in the global economy, Indian adspends will continue to see a month-on-month recovery considering the overall media landscape. Said Ashwin Padmanabhan, President – Partnerships and Trading of GroupM India: “Based on a strong foundation built on the back of FMCG and e-commerce, 2021 is expected to see growth across sectors like auto, telecom, consumer durable, retail and education. Manufacturing, which was severely impacted by the pandemic, is now stabilising and moving toward a positive outlook enabled by automation, technology and supply chain optimisation. 2020 has accelerated the adoption of agile, cost-effective business models, which will help brands and marketers offer better products, services and experiences to consumers.”

     

    Sidharth Parashar, President - Investments and Pricing, GroupM India
    Sidharth Parashar

    Added Sidharth Parashar, President-Investments and Pricing of GroupM India: “Along with digital, television saw a spike in consumption during the lockdown. With acceptance on the subscription bandwagon increasing, OTT will continue to witness a constructive growth and is likely to develop with more players attracting users by investing in content. Print & Radio expected to be backed by local advertisers and certain categories with marketeers leveraging the brand solutions that these media offer. We expect OOH and cinema to see double-digit growth after a difficult year. Given the uncertainty and cautiously spending consumer, brands are realising the importance of being present wherever consumers are. Hence along with continued relevance of television & other mass media, we will witness advertisers leveraging relevant platforms to reach out to its audience.”

     

    GroupM TYNY Key Highlights

  • Will be lead communication partner for next 3 years

    Dentsu Mcgarrybowen wins BLR Airport account

    By Our Staff

     

    Bangalore International Airport has brought on board Dentsu Mcgarrybowen India as its lead communication partner for the next three years. The agency won the account following a multi-agency pitch and will service the brand from its Bengaluru office.

     

    Indrajeet Mookherjee
    Indrajeet Mookherjee

    Said Indrajeet Mookherjee, President South, DMB India: “In the brand communication business, there are once in a lifetime opportunities, and partnering with an airport brand is definitely one. We are truly delighted to have won this mandate and looking forward to embarking on this journey with Team BIAL.”

     

     

    Shalini Rao
    Shalini Rao

    Added Shalini Rao, Chief Marketing Officer, BIAL: “Over the years, BLR Airport has grown in scale and stature. Airports today are becoming destinations by themselves. We are delighted to partner with dentsumcgarrybowen to build our brand journey that will bring alive a multitude of products, themes and experiences.”

     

     

  • Taps on #Everyday Honey initiative

    Havas Creative launches Dabur Honey campaign

    By Our Staff

     

    Dabur Honey has launched a digital campaign #EverydayHoney. Conceptualised and executed by Havas Creative, the campaign will amplify promotions by roping popular influencers and celebrities.

    Said Kunal Sharma, Dabur India Ltd Brand Head-Dabur Honey: “This year, we wanted the brand Dabur Honey to express that the emotion of pure and unconditional love is beyond just one day of Valentine’s celebration. It’s about celebrating love daily and appreciating those who add sweetness in our everyday life. We are delighted that through this initiative #EverydayHoney, the brand acted as a catalyst for celebrities to give a shout out to their fans who love them unconditionally every day.”

    Ravinder Siwach
    Ravinder Siwach

    Added Ravinder Siwach, National Creative Director, Havas Creative: “Valentine’s Day has not only become an important day for our consumers but is also an important advertising event. The day is associated with love, warmth and sweetness. We wanted to be part of this conversation as the connotations and associations of this day are very closely linked to our product and category.  So, when everyone was about to celebrate the day of love, we went ahead and reminded people about the other days. Don’t we deserve the same sweetness and love through the year? It demonstrated that every day is a day of love and hence, every day is Valentine’s Day.  Also, the important bit is we used the insights from the lives of celebrities in order to make the communication sharper and more pointed.”

     

     

  • As part of  the ‘This Year Next Year’ report presentation on Monday, GroupM presented a report on trends impacting the Indian advertising industry

    Trends That Will Influence Adland

     

    Courtesy GroupM

     

    As part of  the ‘This Year Next Year’ report presentation on Monday, GroupM captains presented a report on trends impacting the Indian advertising industry.

     

    Said Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker India: “It has been an interesting year for digital marketers as the nation-wide lockdown brought about exponential growth in certain trends which were already on the up – whether immersive experiences like gaming, the rise of audio or influencer marketing. People have started gaining interest in localized content and now OTT – audio or video, has become a major part of their entertainment. We are also moving towards an era of fragmented social media, where creators will take precedence over communities. Also, with the consumer becoming more conscious by the day, we will see empathy becoming a constant thread in brand communications.”

     

    Sharing some light on the trends, Bharat Khatri, Country Head, Xaxis India added: “Brands are aggressively looking at deploying new tools, data & cloud infrastructures which has resulted in the acceleration of digital transformation post Covid-19. With the increase in demand for different platforms, creativity and localized content, the advertisers have plenty of opportunities to reach consumers through engaging via different audio/video formats & achieve real outcomes in a device agnostic world. In short, the brands are continuously looking out for new ways to reach out to connect with their consumers and make the relationship stronger. We also see that Gen Z has been making a lot of their decision basis social media platforms and this coincides with the rise in new age ecommerce platforms.”

     

    Here are the 10 trends:

     

    1) From Carefree To Conscious – The Great Shift In Consumer Behaviour

    • During the lockdown, there was a 42% growth in searches to know “what’s normal” forbody stats like BP, body temperature and blood sugar

    • Browsing content on healthy cooking went up by100%

    • All this point to a marked change in what the user is seeking, towards self-preservation and wellness

    • Thisis also further accentuated by over 52% rise in content consumption on pets and a 70% increase in searches related to Yoga

    • This behaviour change will also imply how they look at Brands and consumption at large – Consumers are also more likely to embrace brands who showcase empathy and care aboutthe larger world /environment

    • This is presenting an opportunity tobrand

    :: Back of the pack = front of thepack

    :: Highlighting goodness in every possibleway

     

    2) Everything Is Becoming Hyperlocal

    • What is happening in your immediate surroundings – whether town or district istaking precedence over what is happening in the country or the World

    • Oneof the biggest indicators of this is the surge in regional language news & content during the lockdown

    • We are seeing similar trends in digital consumption as well in terms of the rise of more regional news and content consumption– in platforms like Daily Hunt and share

    • This also is happening simultaneously as our capability to sharp shoot communication has increased– for example, our ability to do Pincode-level targeting, thanks to multi-faceted data

     

    points on the audience or targeting based on distribution pattern or market share in specific locations.

    • There’s saying that- Every 15-20 km, the language, dialect, music, food, … everything changes in India

    • Brand owners have opportunity to leverage this and drive precision @scale

     

    3) Driving Up The Subscription Bandwagon

    • 2021 would “once-in-for-all” smash the adage that “Indians don’t pay for content” and drive up thesubscription game for Sports and other forms of quality original  It’s creating a direct 2 consumer opportunity.

    • Thereare many OTT player who has achieved their subscribers target 12- 18 month ahead of  This is not limited to live sports and premium video content – there’s the start of a similar trend in news, audio content and premium domain-specific content in small ways.

    • Platformslike Substack helping talented Journalist reach direct to their readers and monetize their content.

    • 2021 is also going to be an interesting year for sports – 2020’s loss, in terms of sports events, is 2021’s gain. Global sporting events like Euro 2020 and Tokyo 2020 are due to happen this year. Add to this, local favourites i.e., IPL 2021 (within 6 months of its previous edition) and ICC T20 (which would be hosted in India) and you’ve quite a field day for Indian sports fans and broadcastersalike! an Indian Sports Fan as s/he would be battling questions on what to subscribe, when to subscribe, how long to subscribe, where to watch and many such conundrums

    • Interesting time ahead for content industry and distributionplatforms

     

     

    4) Gaming & Esports Growth – More Than Time Pass

    The next generation of entertainment is immersion and engagement while gaming will be a natural winner there

    • 5G

    • VR

    • Gaming

    Gaming will become not just about time spent but also a cultural destination. The nature of this entertainment is not a lean back but a more immersive one. Music concerts and other experiences will also be activated on esports platforms. A handful of businesses can talk positively about 2020 and COVID- 19… One such benefactor is gaming and esports. In peak lockdown during Apr’20, there was an 11% increase in users per week and has seen a rise in the number of gamers where 66% of new gamers are females and 56% of new gamers are above the age of 45. Now gaming as an industry has evolved in multiple ways too. Most companies in this industry are looking to create platforms that will be central to an individual’s life where activities, like shopping, socializing, events (especially esports) can all be done in virtual and interactive ways. During the lockdown, esports live-stream viewership grew by 61% and 66% in week 1 and 2, respectively. These are great signs, considering that despite the majority of the on- ground esports events getting pushed in 2020, the gaming fans have held their own. With 2020 contributing immensely to gaming habit formation; for 2021 to be the year of esports, organizers need to focus on building career opportunities starting with improved prize money pool.

     

    5) Platforms Will Become Creator Led Than Community-Led

    The entry barrier for social platforms used to be the network effect. a.k.a how many of my friends/people are there on the network. As we move towards an ecosystem where people join platforms more for the experience and creators on it, this barrier will be lowered significantly. We are possibly looking at 4-5 different platforms with a 100 Million plus user base, not far from now

     

    Influencer content for brand building will sustain but a majority of categories will move towards a performance mindset for advocacy. Newer platforms, driven by creators already have seamless commerce features built-in. This will spur content-to-commerce in a big way in 2021. The journey from platform-based advocacy to an integrated strategy for brands will now scale to include commerce as well. This will also bring in more industry guidelines on influencers disclosing brand partnerships.

     

    6) Immersive audio becomes a cultural movement. Finds a loyal audience across age demographics

    As we predicted last year, audio has truly made its comeback in style. Platforms like Clubhouse are seeing great traction and audience for podcasts has grown manifold in India in 2020 and the MAUs are already where social media was a few years back. The IAB has just released technical guidelines for podcast measurement in the US. In India, standards and guidelines will emerge and be solidified, as we are reaching critical mass. Given the proven efficacy of audio on brand recall, this will be extremely critical for brands looking to make cultural interventions.

     

    7) Digital Transformation – ROI To Opportunity Cost

    Leaders are aggressively deploying new tools, data & cloud infrastructures, the digital transformation process got accelerated post-Covid. This will help create new age “Marketing Digital Infrastructure “and replace old tech which was becoming a barrier to fast-track digital transformation. Advancing towards a P3PC (post-third-party cookies) has accelerated the long-term data strategies plan to own the consumer where brands have already started to deploy CDPs (Customer Data Platforms) to transition from segment audience data approach to individual consumer profiles. The industry will continue to see this trend in both advertiser & publisher ecosystem on putting more focus towards 1st party data activation powered with contextual targeting.

     

    8) Streaming Wars- In a Device Agnostic World

    2020 pandemic turned out to be an opportunity in crisis for OTT industry in India. Connected TV is simply becoming the new TV. It is the way large segments of consumers will access premium content. As we see by its current use for reach extension, CTV is a medium through which mass brand messaging can continue going forward. The fact that it is more targetable and measurable than ‘old TV’ enables marketers to elevate and personalize their messaging when appropriate. So, it can be the best of both worlds. Growth in SVoD may sound bad news for advertising, as largely SVoD platforms are ad-free. But in India, the home- grown broadcaster & independent OTTs at an early stage only has adopted hybrid multi-tiered monetization model by giving the audience the choice of both free, ad-supported content & premium subscription offering. This is giving advertisers plenty of opportunities to reach consumers through engaging video formats & achieve real outcomes in a device-agnostic world. In 2021, this advertising channel will continue to have a lion share in programmatic spends & will also bring incremental budgets from the traditional/linear TV pie. With increased spends, we will also see advertisers adapting to more evolved, efficient & effective programmatic buying methods like PMPs (Private Market Place) to get a unified consumer view & thus maximizing the ROI from video spends.

     

    9) Connected Commerce- The Customer-Convenience Imperative

    E-commerce platforms have become an indispensable digital channel to reach target audiences and influence sales. Marketers will need to think like DTC brands – embracing emerging technologies, customer service obsession and adaptive messaging to get closer to their consumers. DTC brands have excelled at creating 1:1 relationship with their consumers since they have closed-loop measurement within their customer journeys. Shoppable Ads are on the rise as Genz are deciding on social media videos. These new media formats play an important role in cultivating better outcomes overall for an advertiser. In 2021, we will see a big shift of spends happening from current market-leading DSPs especially in display channel towards the new age e-commerce DSPs like Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm. Categories, where spend shift, is quite inevitable are FMCG, BFSI, Grocery, Apparels, Health & Personal care, as ecomm DSPs offer end to end marketing funnel solutions with efficient ROAS.

     

    10) Bringing Creativity Back Into Digital Advertising

    The industry is recognizing that creativity is the first step to grabbing attention and enhancing the influence, and media buying should aim to match advertising messages with real consumer behaviours, not just attributes. Brands need to embrace AI to boost personalization at scale. It is like feeding an algorithm with historical & real-time data and then letting AI perform analysis, build & serve the user hyper-personalized message. Traditional personalized creative tools were built for targeting customer personas or profiles, where each profile used to represent a category of consumers, however, in case of AI personalization tools it is like engaging with each customer as an individual profile. With increased social commerce share, AI-based hyper-personalization engines will be the need of the hour, as it will improve both ROI & customer experience.

  • Degrows 20% in 2020, as per the annual report on advertising expenditure

    Back to 2019 levels, as AdEx to grow 26%: Pitch Madison report

     

    By Our Staff

     

    It is the most respected of the forecasts of advertising expenditure in the country. We are referring to the Pitch Madison Advertising Outlook report that was unveiled virtually on Wednesday by Sam Balsara, Chairman, Madison World. According to the report, AdEx degrew 20% in 2020 and is expected to grow 26% in Calendar Year 2021.

     

    Sam Balsara
    Sam Balsara

    Said Balsara, Chairman, Madison World: “A number of macro-economic factors, study of AdEx historical behaviour and stupendous growth in Q4 leads us to make a high projection of 26%. Our full report gives you more details of the basis of our projection and some Advice to Advertisers.”

     

     

    Key findings of the report:

    A. Overall:

    1) In 2020 total Adex has degrown by 20% and Traditional Adex by as much as 29%.

    2) In absolute terms ADEX has degrown from Rs. 67,603 crore to Rs. 54,151 crore, a drop of a whopping Rs. 13,452 crore, the highest drop in one year ever, in Indian ADEX’s history. Adex is now at 2017 levels, but is expected to reach 2019 level by end of 2021.

    3) Although Traditional Media declined by 29% in 2020, its share in total Adex is as high as 69%, whereas the global average is 41%.

    4) Covid’s negative impact on Indian ADEX has been more severe compared to Global Adex  and many other countries of the world including US where the drop was only 4%.

    5) Q4 2020 has registered a whopping 61% increase over Q3 2020 and a 16% increase over Q4 2019. And this gives us a lot of confidence and hope that both Market and ADEX is going to bounce back sharply in 2021.

    6) Many Advertisers deserted TV, Print and Radio in Q2 2020, but by Q4 almost all Advertisers have returned to the Advertising fold.

    7) FMCG continues to be the main category spender and its share moved up to 38% compared to 33% in full year 2019.

    8) E-commerce and Education are the only two categories that increased spends, by 30% and 9% respectively.

    9) 10 new advertisers entered the Top 50 list of advertisers, key ones being Phone Pe, Pepsico, facebook and Disney Hotstar.

     

    B. Television

    1) Television media degrew by a mere 11% to reach Rs.22,508 crore, its 2018 level, but has further consolidated its position as the No. 1 medium with 42% market share.

    2) FMCG, continues to be the largest contributor for TV ADEX and further increased its share from 49% to 51%, though in value terms, the category de-grew by 9% almost in line with the TV degrowth of 11%.

    3) The only 2 categories to show a growth in absolute terms are E-commerce, which registered a 95% growth over 2019 and Education, a 193% growth over 2019.  Within e-commerce, in addition to online shopping, mobile wallets and media / entertainment / social media / OTT were the leading categories.

    4) The impact on regional channels has been the least, implying that national brands prioritised campaigns in their strong markets and regional brands came back to ADEX faster than national brands.

    5) TV Adex is expected to grow by 17% in 2021 to reach Rs. 26,350 crore, 4% higher than 2019.

     

    C. Print

    1) Covid damage to Print has been massive and Print ADEX lost as much as Rs. 8,120 crore or 41% and has gone back to a level it had reached in 2012.

    2) With a drop in share from 30% to 22%, Print lost its No. 2 rank in ADEX.

    3) However, a spike in ADEX during the festive season (Q4 20) has resulted in highest Volume and Ad  revenue.

    4) Print Adex grew by 59% in Q4 2020 vs Q3 2020, however, this is still 15% less than Q4 2019.

    5) All categories in Print seem to have got affected including E-commerce (-57%), Education (-14%), Auto       (-29%) and FMCG (-30%). Education increased its share of Print ADEX by 5 percentage  points, from 10% to 15% and Auto and FMCG by 3 percentage points each, from 13% to 16% and from 14% to 17% respectively. These 3 categories accounted for 47% of Print ADEX.

    6) Newspaper circulation in metros got affected a little more deeply and recovery seems to have taken longer. Because of which contribution of Hindi, in terms of volume has increased from 35% to 38% with English trailing at 24%. Kannada and Malayalam newspapers showed highest resilience and least degrowth in terms of volume, whilst Tamil, Telugu and Marathi publications de-grew the most.

    7) Print Adex is expected to grow by 35% in 2021 to reach Rs. 16,100 crore, but it will still be at the level it reached in 2015.

     

    D. Digital

    1) Digital is the only medium that grew in 2020 by 10% to reach Rs. 16,974 Digital is now the No. 2 medium, having displaced Print with a share of 31%, up from 23% in 2019.

    2) Digital has grown in 3 quarters and de-grew only in Q2 2019 by 35% when there was a strict lockdown. This drop of 35% must be seen in comparison to the drop of 79% in Print and 61% in Television in the same quarter.

    3) Share of Search has come down significantly by as much as 5 percentage points and now stands at just 18%. This is not because Search has degrown, but other verticals have grown much faster. Video, not only is the largest contributor but has further increased its share from 30% to 32% during the year. Both Social and Display have marginally improved their Share and all three have grown shares at the expense of Search.

    4) Programmatic has taken firm root in Indian Digital Adex and now almost 40% of all Digital spends are through Programmatic.

    5) Digital is set to grow by 25% in 2021 to reach Rs. 21,200 crore.

     

    E. Other Media

    1) Radio ADEX is the third worst affected medium which de-grew by almost 44% and came down in value from Rs. 2,260 crore to just Rs. 1,270 crore. This sharp drop has taken Radio back to its 2014 level. With this drop, Radio has also lost 1% market share and now has a share of 2%. We expect Radio Adex to grow by 38% and reach Rs. 1,750 crore.

    2) OOH ADEX also de-grew by as much as 63% to a low of Rs. 1,292 crore and its market share dropped by as many as 3% points from 5% in 2019 to 2% in 2020. OOH Adex in 2020 has gone back to its 2007 level. We expect OOH Adex to grow by 90%, to reach Rs. 2,450 crore.

    3) Cinema is by far the worst affected medium because of Covid and in our estimate, suffered an 83% drop, capsizing its low base of around just a little over Rs. 1,000 crore to under Rs 200 crore. We expect Cinema to grow by 161% to reach Rs. 475 crore.