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Tag: Indrani Sen

  • Outdoor industry leaders need to resolve many issues before visualising a roadmap for evolving towards the digital future, writes Indrani Sen

    Indrani Sen: Outreaching by Outdoor: From Static to Interactive

    By Indrani Sen

     

    Global Industry Analyst, Inc (GIA) in its report on “The Global Outdoor Advertising Market” in January 2015, talked about the growing popularity of digital platforms for out of home advertising. According to that report “Asia Pacific represents the largest market worldwide. The region is also forecast to emerge as the fastest growing market with a CAGR of 8.6% over the analysis period, led by the retail boom in countries such as China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and India.” (http://www.strategyr.com/MarketResearch/Outdoor_Advertising_Market_Trends.asp) In a press release dated February 10, 2015, GIA spoke about technology development and replacement of traditional static billboards and posters with digital signage as the prime drivers of the growth in outdoor industry and predicted rise in oversized digital billboards/ large screen digital displays.

     

    Compared to the global trend, how has our Outdoor Advertising Industry been faring over the recent years? FICCI-KPMG reports have been predicting healthy CAGRs over the last five years. In the last two reports, a CAGR of 9.2% over 2013-2018 was posted in 2014, followed by a marginally higher CAGR of 9.8% over 2014-2019 in 2015. We have also been talking about digital OOH driving the growth, but our usage of digital OOH have been limited to place-based networks in cafes, restaurants, health clubs, educational institutes, sports arenas, malls, some public spaces like airports. In spite of the predictions of the global industry experts, our use of DOOH (digital out of home) has been limited to small screens, interactive kiosks, jukeboxes and jumbotrons. Large standalone screens/ billboards with digital content which needs larger investment in the infrastructure have still not arrived in India.

     

    Annie Rickard, the Global CEO of Posterscope, spoke about pioneering dynamic real-time content on OOH screens and the challenge of implementing the same due to infrastructural constraints in an interview during her recent visit to India. Speaking about the relevance of outdoor medium in a digital world, she said: “The whole world of OOH has shifted. There was a time when OOH was only about awareness and impact. But now you can have a conversation with consumers.” She also pointed out the need for consolidation on the media owners’ side and the need for all players to work together backed by a valuable insight- “What we have seen everywhere else in the world is that when you have less players, the investment goes up. When you have lots of small players, they actually invest less collectively in the medium. You also get more collaboration when you have a smaller number of players.” (http://www.exchange4media.com/outofhome/our-focus-will-be-on-continued-investment-to-make-the-ooh–medium-accountableannie-rickard_62497).

     

    Is our outdoor industry ready for consolidation and collaboration? Apart from a few mergers and acquisitions at the top and networking and trading of sites across the width and breadth of the industry, there has not been any serious attempt at any consolidation. In August, 2015 AAAI (Advertising Agencies Association of India) and IOAA (Indian Outdoor Advertising Association) signed an agreement to better regulate outdoor advertising in India and there was no reference to consolidation in that agreement. Their focus will be on regulating and disciplining advertiser behaviour in matters concerning outdoor trade, agency remuneration, corporate governance and adherence to payment deadlines (http://www.campaignindia.in/Article/397183,aaai-and-ioaa-join-hands-to-channel-ooh-advertising-growth.aspx) Ideally it should have been a tri- party agreement between AAAI, IOAA and ISA (Indian Advertisers Association). The absence of ISA has raised some doubts about the long term success of the efforts.

     

    While making announcement about the joint agreement, N D Mehta, President of IOAA, mentioned about outdoor research and a census of billboards/ hoarding across all major cities. IOAA has been involved for a while in an ambitious project of conducting viewership research on OOH, starting with major cities. However, we do not have any indication regarding the timeline or progress of the research project. The first Indian Outdoor Survey (IOS) was spearheaded by MRUC (Market Research Users Council) and conducted by Hansa Research in Mumbai in 2008. The report was released in June 2009 by MRUC with a promise of extending the research to other cities. Due to lack of financial support from the outdoor Industry, MRUC had to abandon its plans. Since then, no syndicated research has been conducted in this space, though various outdoor advertising agencies have carried out their own research. Market research organizations like IMRB have developed outdoor research models which the advertisers can commission. Does IOAA have enough muscle power to bring outdoor industry under one umbrella for supporting syndicated research on outdoor on a regular basis? Can IOAA and AAAI generate the required funds of outdoor research without active support from ISA?

     

    The advertising Industry will welcome the move of conducting a census of 100% of sites and identifying them with unique ID number in major cities. But, the IOAA will have to conduct a health check of the sites first. A search on the IOAA site (http://www.ioaa.co.in/ news on facebook) shows various news items related to removal of illegal hoardings. A news item dated October 7, 2015 talks about a survey conducted by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) ascertaining that out of 6,119 hoardings within city limits of Bengaluru, only around 2,000 had legal permissions! Paradoxically, the size of our country, which is the foundation of the structure of the current developments in our media industry, is the biggest roadblock for organised development of our outdoor industry.

     

    Outdoor regulations are mostly governed by the local authorities/ civic bodies and various state governments and there is a lack of uniform structure. Can the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting instruct TRAI to create a template for the outdoor rules and regulations which can be adopted locally in each state? It is probably wishful thinking as there are many political under currents when it comes to the relationship between Central Government and State Governments regarding formulation of rules and regulations related to matters under state control and jurisdiction. Alternatively, is it possible for IOAA to develop such a uniform guideline for outdoor rules and regulations and solicit for the support of all state governments?

     

    Indian advertisers have not yet come to grasp with the concept of interactive outdoor with real time content. Outdoor industry leaders need to resolve many issues before visualising a roadmap for evolving towards the digital future. In the meantime, shall we just sit back and watch the rest of the countries in the Asia Pacific region passing us by in the race towards the digital future? Can we create a model city where all outdoor sites will be legal with unique ID numbers, where a large number of static hoardings will be converted to oversized digital billboards with real-time content having conversations with consumers, where research will be measuring the impact of the new avatar of outdoor on a regular basis? Needless to mention, the model city experiment cannot be conducted in a metro where the scale of operation will be too huge. So, it will have to be a Tier-2 city with strong growth in retail sector. Outdoor Industry will need active support from the local government for conducting the experiment. If all the stakeholders in the industry join hands together to make such a plan successful, that example will automatically propel the growth of our outdoor industry into the digital future. Amen!

     

    Indrani Sen is a veteran media agency and marketing services professional. She is currently an Independent Consultant and Adjunct Faculty, Media Management at Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. This column MediaSENse will appear fortnightly. The views expressed here are her own.

     

  • The Association of Radio Operators in India (AROI) should collaborate with BARC for setting up the structure of the radio audience research, notes Indrani Sen

    Indrani Sen: Radio Rumblings & Selling without Currency

    By Indrani Sen

     

    Currently radio is the fastest growing traditional medium in India. Why the Radio Industry is not feeling the need for a valid media currency after investing a whopping Rs 3,000 crore (including the migration fees) in the Phase III of FM Radio expansion? Why is RAM, our only syndicated radio listenership study, limited to only four cities since 2007 when six years back in 2009 (after the Phase II auction), 91 cities formed our Private FM Radio Network? How can the Radio channels be so indifferent to RAM that some of them have stopped subscribing to it? As per the FICCI KPMG 2015 report, radio revenue will increase from Rs 1,960 crore in 2015 to Rs 3,950 crore in 2019. Are the advertisers buying radio time blindfold or is there a hidden card which is helping radio stations to sell effectively without the help of a regular currency?

     

    What is ailing our Radio Audience Measurement studies?  We had a good start in radio research in late 1990s. The advertising industry felt the need of radio listenership measurement even before the advent of private FM channels and the pressure which mounted on AIR resulted in Audience Research Unit starting its Radio Programme Listenership (RPL) ratings in 1998. In early 2000, MRUC started Indian Listenership Track (ILT) in partnership with AC Nielsen ORG- MARG based on yesterday’s listenership (YDL) which is also referred as Day After Recall (DAR).  MRUC commissioned a research to evaluate which of the two radio research methodologies (between DAR and Diary) was the most robust in Indian context and the Diary Method scored above DAR.  ILT was discontinued after 2006 as TAM announced the launch of RAM from 2007.

     

    A joint service between IMRB International and Nielsen Media Research, RAM is an independent division of TAM Media Research and provides listenership data based on the Diary Method on a weekly basis. RAM started with a lot of promise in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru in 2007. Kolkata was soon added as the fourth city. The panel size of 600-plus individuals each in Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata has been static over the years though new listening devices have been included in the diaries.

     

    RAM was criticised soon after the first ratings were released for using the 2005 NRS universe estimate without proper corrective measures. The universe estimate was finally corrected in 2011 (two years after Phase II auction) showing huge growth in population in all the four cities. Certain demographic distributions based on the new universe estimates and other findings were also challenged by radio industry experts. Large FM radio organisations found that they had to invest in independent research to understand the behaviour of the listeners in the markets beyond the four RAM cities. They chose to rely on their own research across all markets and began unsubscribing to RAM. The limitations of RAM drove some of the advertisers to conduct their own research to understand the efficacy of radio as a medium for their target audience and they stopped using RAM.  It became a Catch-22 situation.

     

    The exodus of FM Channels from RAM resulted in lack of financial support to the syndicated research. Apathy of the radio industry is the reason for RAM getting stuck to only four cities over eight years though they announced periodically their intention to add on more cities. It is probably too late now to revive and revamp the syndicated radio listenership research in its present format.  A new audience metrics needs to be set up in India based on a proper sampling structure for covering the entire FM Radio network (AIR and Private) and providing useful information to the radio and advertising industry.

     

    The Association of Radio Operators in India (AROI) should collaborate with BARC for setting up the structure of the radio audience research. BARC has been set up with the intention of providing measurement of “Broadcast Audience” including both TV and Radio. After setting up the TV audience measurement system successfully, BARC needs to focus on radio audience measurement system.  AROI would have to ensure complete support by the radio industry to the new avatar of the syndicated listenership study.

     

    The question which needs to be addressed is can the radio industry afford a large scale sophisticated radio listenership study based on audio meters? As per the FICCI-KPMG 2015 report, against industry size of 543.2 INR billion for TV and 284.5 INR billion for Print, the size of the radio industry is miniscule at only 19.6 INR billion. It is obvious that unless advertisers and media agencies actively support the syndicated research on radio listenership study, it would not be financially feasible.

     

    A number of media planners are now using IRS data for preliminary analysis of penetration of FM Radio in their target audience and selection of radio channels. However, the analysis often cannot be conducted due to inadequate sample size in the selected target audience. While MRUC is planning the new IRS, can they examine the scope of providing additional information on penetration of FM radio as a medium?

     

    Meantime, regardless of the coverage provided by RAM, the FM radio industry continues to thrive and grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18% (FICCI-KPMG Report, 2015). What is the secret of the success of this medium? Radio operators in India are today selling radio time based on a 360 degree approach which is helping in the growth of radio advertising.  No deal happens without ground activation and digital support through mobile texts and social media interactions. Often TV or Print or OOH support from the same media house is also solicited through FM Channels.

     

    The advertisers are satisfied as they have an indirect measure of the radio listenership through social media sites and the success of activation programmes are reflected in the sales graph. Recently, in a media seminar conducted by Calcutta Media Institute in Kolkata on October 9 and 10, 2015, Jimmy Tangree of 91.9 Friends FM said “We also do radio” while moderating a panel discussion.  He explained that no radio show happens today without the digital/ social connection. This is the hidden card behind the success of the medium and explains how the radio industry is successfully marketing radio time without the support of a regular media currency.

     

  • Can our law-makers help ASCI by introducing specific penalty for violation of ASCI's rulings, asks Indrani Sen

    Indrani Sen: Destroy the Demon

    By Indrani Sen

     

    Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) greeted the Indian Advertising Industry this year with ‪@#‎HappyDussehra  Destroy the demon of misleading ads! Dassera, the time when the entire country celebrates the triumph of good over evil, is probably the right time to introspect how we have fared in the area of self-regulations over the last 30 years.

     

    Founded in 1985 with support of three main constituents of our advertising industry, viz. advertisers, advertising agencies and media owners along with other professional /ancillary services connected with advertising practice, ASCI has come a long way in three decades. The Cable Television Network Rules 1994 included ASCI’s Code for Self-Regulation in Advertising in the Advertising Code under Cable TV Act’s Rules. The 2007 amendment of Cable and TV Network Rules reconfirmed it. For some time, ASCI have been taking part in all committees working on advertising content in every Ministry of the Government of India. Many misleading ads are short lived, thanks to ASCI’s rulings.

     

    Yet, we find that at times rulings by ASCI are not followed by the parties concerned. Last year, an advisory issued to all TV channels by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting on August 21, 2014 spoke about violation of ASCI’s rulings by some TV channels and advised not to carry ads found ‘violative’ by ASCI. In 2014-15, 80% of the advertisers agreed to accept ASCI’s rulings and agreed to withdraw the misleading ads while 20% did not.  It is more common to find that advertisers, agencies drag their feet before they finally withdraw the offending ad from the market. The media houses very rarely take the onus on themselves and do not refuse any ad even when there is a clear ruling given by ASCI against it. So, the demon of misleading ads continues to haunt our advertising industry with many organisations turning a blind eye.

     

    Can we collectively take some steps to strengthen ASCI’s hands for destroying this demon? Can the various industry bodies like ISA, AAAI, IBF, INS etc. take some positive steps to ensure that all their members abide by ASCI’s rulings? Can our law-makers help ASCI by introducing specific penalty for violation of ASCI’s rulings? I would humbly like to propose a few suggestions to all concerned.

     

    Extend Membership of ASCI

    Currently, the membership of ASCI is voluntary and therefore optional. While ASCI cannot enforce the advertisers, agencies and media houses to become their members, the various industry associations can consider making it compulsory for all their members to become a member of ASCI. This would help to spread the awareness about ASCI which currently in many non-member organizations rest on the back burner.

     

    Support Funding of ASCI

    As an independent NGO funded by its members, ASCI is not very cash-rich. An extended membership pool will help to increase its resources. In this context, our industry and our law-makers may like to review the system of funding Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in UK which is funded mostly by the advertisers through a remote control mechanism. There is a 0.1% levy on the cost of buying advertising space/time and the 0.2% levy on direct mail which are collected by the Advertising Standards Board of Finance (Asbof) and the Broadcast Advertising Standards Board of Finance (Basbof) for funding the ASA. Advertisers in UK can choose to pay the levy, but they cannot choose to comply with the Advertising Codes or the ASA’s rulings.

     

    Introduce Penalty for Disobeying ASCI’s Rulings

    The Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) in UK , which is a part of the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA), ensures primarily obedience by broadcasters to their rulings – “Broadcasters are obliged by a condition of their broadcast licences to enforce ASA rulings.  If they persistently run ads that breach the Codes broadcasters risk being referred by the ASA to Ofcom, which can impose fines and even withdraw their licence to broadcast.” (https://www.asa.org.uk/Industry-advertisers/Sanctions/Broadcast.aspx) ASCI have an associate membership of the European Advertising Standard Alliance, but the obligation to comply with ASCI’s rulings rest primarily with the advertisers and agencies in India. Would it be possible for our law-makers to impose fines and withdrawal of licences on Broadcasters/ Newspapers for disobeying the rulings of ASCI? Can IBF and INS who are very strict with advertisers and agencies when it comes to credit control, introduce some such disciplinary measures for their members for disobeying rulings of ASCI?

     

    Introduce Pre-clearance of Ads

    Currently, there is no system to ensure that no ad is misleading before it is released. “Some countries’ eg France have pre clearance of ad by self regulatory body requirement, UK TV channels also pre clear advertisements just like DD does it in India”(http://ascionline.org/index.php/faqs.html).The broadcasters in the UK have established and funded two pre-clearance centres: (i) Clearcast for television commercials and (ii) Radiocentre for radio ads. Considering that most of the ads that the consumers complain against in 2014-15 were from TV media, would it be possible for IBF to introduce a similar system of pre-clearance of all TV commercials in India?

     

    Make ASCI Certifications compulsory in Agencies

    ASCI’s new websites has introduced an E- Learning Portal offering 14 modules of self learning courses with certifications at a nominal cost. Agencies should make it compulsory for their creative people to take these courses. I am sure that ASCI would be willing to consider discounts against bulk enrolment, particularly from their member agencies.

     

    Promote ASCI through Corporate Social Responsibility Projects

    The aim of ASCI is to maintain and enhance the public’s confidence in advertising. Their mandate is that all advertising material must be truthful, legal and honest, decent and not objectify women, safe for consumers, especially children and last but not the least, fair to their competitors. In 2010, ASCI launched a national campaign against dishonest, misleading ads. Advertisers, who have to spend on Corporate Social Responsibility, may like to consider promoting the aims of ASCI through similar campaigns to public at large and through specific activities to various industry constituents.

     

    Let good sense prevail on each one of us in the industry! Let all of us join hands to support ASCI in destroying this demon of misleading ads!!

     

  • The I&B Ministry and TRAI should consider the scope of adopting the Australian model with variable options across different time bands including additional allowance during Central and State elections, writes Indrani Sen

    MediaSENse by Indrani Sen: To cap it all

    By Indrani Sen

     

    During the last month, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) and others sought adjournment of the court case challenging the advertising cap of 12 minutes per hour twice in the Delhi High Court. The hearing scheduled on September 8 was first adjourned to September 23 on the ground that lawyers were on strike, which again got adjourned to November 27 on the ground that the matter was under discussion with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B). The earlier order by Supreme Court that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will not take any legal action against any channel violating the norms will stay put till the Delhi High Court case is heard and resolved. As per the reports published by the TRAI on a quarterly basis, very few channels are adhering to the limits set by TRAI.

    Based on consumer complaints, TRAI has been trying to regulate the quantity of commercials on TV channels since 2012. When the regulation on Ad Cap was announced in 2013, ( http://www.thehindu.com/   August 18, 2013).  Manish Tewari, I&B Minister in the UPA government said in an interview “TRAI should introspect and reconsider its current stance till carriage fees don’t mitigate further and subscriber revenue doesn’t stabilize for the sake of the healthy growth of the industry.”  Subsequently, Prakash Javadekar, the first I&B Minister in the BJP Government  indicated to media that the government was considering an amendment that free-to-air (FTA) channels should be exempt from the restriction of the 12 minutes ad-cap, while for pay channels the existing limit of 12 minutes per hour of advertisements would continue. (http://www.livemint.com/ October 8, 2014). After Arun Jaitley took over as I&B Minister, he made a statement that there should be no ad cap in the print or electronic media, but did not give any such instruction to the Ministry. (http://www.indiantelevision.com/ )

    While the I&B Ministry and TRAI are mulling over the issue, it would be informative to do a quick look around the world and survey the norms related to ‘TV Ad Caps’ practised in developed countries. In Europe, the Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) sets the regulatory framework setting a limit for all channels of 12 minutes on the amount of advertising shown in one hour.  The similar rules which apply in the UK, are set out in the Code on the Scheduling and Amount of Advertising (COSTA) prepared by Ofcom, Independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries. With our colonial hangover, we seem to have adopted the regulation prevailing in UK.

    The Australian model is very interesting. The Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) categorises the time bands into two slots and stipulates that on the main channels, commercial television licensees may schedule

    1) Average 13 minutes per hour of non-programme matter between 6pm and midnight; and

    2) Average 15 minutes per hour on non-programme matter at other times.

    However, the maximum that can be scheduled in any given hour is:

    1) 15 minutes from 6pm to midnight – with no more than 14 minutes scheduled in any four of those hours; and

    2) 16 Minutes at other times.

    The definition of non-programme matter includes paid advertising but excludes short programme promotions and pop-up programme promotions in the middle of programmes. Additional allowance is given during election periods to accommodate the broadcast of ‘political matter’. Since 2014, the leading channels have been lobbying with the government for raising the bar to 20 minutes of non-programme matter every hour. The pros and cons of the same are still being debated.

    Canada had the stipulation of ad cap of 12 minutes per hour based on individual licence agreements till 2007. In May, 2007, CTRC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) announced a phased relaxation of the rule bringing the free to air conventional TV channels more closely in line with their counterparts in US. So, from 2009, there is no cap on the quantity of commercials per hour on the free to air Canadian channels while the specialty pay channels are still subject to the ad cap of 12 minutes per hour.

    American TV hour-long programmes typically run for 42 to 43 minutes, leaving 17 to 18 minutes per hour for commercials. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has a special regulation for controlling loud commercials, but has not introduced any cap on the quantity of time used for the commercials per hour. In 2014, a new study from Nielsen, the ratings measurement firm of US, showed that the number of commercials had grown steadily over 2009 to 2013. In 2009, the broadcast networks averaged 13 minutes and 25 seconds of commercial time per hour which grew to 14 minutes and 15 seconds in 2013. The growth was more significant on cable television. A typical American home had 189 channels to choose from yet only watched 17.5 on a regular basis. That figure was the same in 2009, when the average home received 129 channels. According to Nielsen, use of shorter commercials became more common (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment   May 16, 2014). Recently, I read online that Viacom is planning to find out if they can get more value for TV commercials by running fewer them on the network. (http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/viacom-primetime-tv-advertising-cuts-1201598646/  September 21, 2015).

    Ad clutter has been a major hindrance for TV viewing over many years. To cap it all, now an exodus of consumers from TV to streaming video, mobile devices, etc. have started across the world. On TV, appointment viewing has been changing to scattered delayed viewing. Our TV channels, who are fighting against the TRAI regulation on ad cap for protecting their revenue, should remember that their ratings followed by revenue may be better protected with less time devoted to ad breaks.

    The  I&B Ministry and TRAI should consider the scope of adopting the Australian model with variable options across different time bands including additional allowance during Central and State elections. As we have almost 50 percent of our licensed channels in the news genre, the news and non-news can also be put in two different buckets apart from the FTA and Pay channels. In my view, we need to come out of the practice of holding UK as the role model and look around for better alternatives while framing our media rules and regulations.

    Indrani Sen is a veteran media agency and marketing services professional. She is currently an Independent Consultant and Adjunct Faculty, Media Management at Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. This column MediaSENse will appear fortnightly. The views expressed here are her own.

     

  • When the TV Industry has got a new currency from BARC which uses superior technology than its predecessor, the print Industry needs to rally around MRUC to ensure that IRS can also claim similar upgradation, writes Indrani Sen

    Introducing new fortnightly column by Indrani Sen – MediaSENse: Why our Print Majors must come out of their Comfort Zones?

    By Indrani Sen

     

    In his recent digital pitch with media bosses in New York, our Prime Minister claimed that unlike manufacturing, in the world of media, India is almost as evolved as any other country. Does his observation hold good for our print industry on which the sun continues to shine? The print majors are basking in the comfort of the findings of FICCI-KPMG and other such industry reports which are predicting growth, but a comparison of the CAGR percentages projected over the years reflects erosion.

     

    Projections of Print CAGR CAGR 2011 to 2015 CAGR 2011 to 2016 CAGR 2012 to 2017 CAGR 2013 to 2018 CAGR 2014 to 2019
    Total Print Market

    10%

    9.10%

    8.70%

    9%

    8%
    Source: FICCI-KPMG Reports

    2011

    2012

    2013

    2014

    2015

     

    So, it is obvious that slowly but steadily the global trends have started to creep into Indian print industry.  Accelerated penetration of mobiles in smaller towns and rural areas will support the growth of digital and social media and may result in faster erosion of CAGR in the print market and the CAGR 2020 to 2025 may come down drastically.

     

    Instead of strengthening their arsenal with readership currency for protecting their share in the total advertising revenue, currently the Indian print industry seems to have taken up a negative stance against the IRS. Agreeably, many publications had genuine grievances against the findings of IRS 2013, but that should not be a legitimate reason for withdrawing their support from the readership survey. When the TV Industry has got a brand new currency from BARC which uses superior technology than its predecessor, the print Industry needs to rally around MRUC to ensure that IRS can also claim similar upgradation by introducing improved methodology.

     

    In a large scale ongoing quantitative survey, teething problems and relative errors are quite normal. Perhaps the magnitude of the errors in IRS 2013 crossed the tolerance level of some print majors, but they should recollect that initially NRS findings also had many issues which got corrected over the years. We saw emergence of MRUC and IRS as a protest against the methodology and findings of NRS and subsequently the merger of the two surveys. We are witnessing now a dark period of three years in print currency as IRS 2013 was rejected by the print Industry, IRS 2014 (based only on fieldwork of one quarter) has not been taken seriously by the advertisers and agencies, and the field work for IRS 2015 has not yet commenced. In a developed country, such a gap in a media currency is unheard of. The sooner all the stakeholders of MRUC resolve their differences and kickstart the field work, the better it would be for second and third line publications who are likely to suffer more due to lack of readership data. The media planners and buyers cannot determine the incremental reach/ OTS/ CPT for adding more than one publication in the plan and are likely to limit their print campaigns to only the established market leaders.

     

    Indian newspapers need to take up two challenges at two ends of the audience market. Firstly, they must try to reduce the gap between the literate population and the number of newspaper readers. Secondly, they must improve and promote their web editions and convert the internet savvy Indians to online readers. The concept of “Integrated Newsroom”, which is being advocated by many researchers and industry observers, is essential for achieving these two diverse tasks.

     

    According to IRS 2012, approximately 44 percent of literate Indians do not read any newspaper. This average percentage decreases as one climbs up the SEC ladder and increases in small towns and rural areas. It is obvious that the current combination of regional, national and international news dished out by most newspapers is not acceptable reading material by a large chunk of Indian population. Special, smaller editions with more emphasis on hyper-local news may be more acceptable in the small towns and rural areas.

     

    Most Indian newspapers have launched their e-editions, but there is lack of efforts in promoting as well as making them user friendly and interactive, perhaps due to the apprehension that the growth of online readership will cannibalize readership of the hard copies. There is a huge scope of growth for web editions of regional newspapers if they plan to ride on the growth of computer literacy in secondary schools in small towns and villages. Innovative marketing tie-ups with mobile manufacturers and service providers can increase the initial trial and subsequent conversion rate of the e-editions.

     

    In this connection, it will be pertinent to note the new trends in readership surveys in developed countries, particularly in UK, as we have traditionally followed the example of UK for setting up our media infrastructure, media regulations, etc. In the 1970s, Indian National Readership Survey was also modeled largely on the Readership Survey of UK. NRS PADD was introduced in UK in September2012 to provide a unique measure of combined print and online audiences to cater to the demand of a dynamic and changing digital media age. It is a fusion of data by RSMB from two independent surveys, print readership survey by Ipsos MORI and comScore digital survey. It provides a single database for planning across print and digital platforms of NRS publisher brands. (Source: http://www.nrs.co.uk). Apart from full NRS demographic and classification data for profiling and targeting, the NRS PADD provides the unduplicated reach of a print publication and its website, duplication of print titles and websites – which websites do a publication’s readers visit, and vice versa. NRS PADD: Mobile was launched in September 2014. The future lies in combining readership research across the print and digital platforms. The opinion leaders in the print Industry must realise that the digital trends are irreversible and steer the industry in that direction.

     

    The Global Media Report 2014 by Mckinsey & Co. predicted “Digital advertising is becoming a dominant force in the global media advertising market. Excluding the online and mobile components of TV advertising, in 2017 digital advertising will overtake TV, which for decades has been the largest advertising medium……….We project digital advertising to continue to increase at double-digit rates, growing 15.1 percent compounded annually to 2018 and accounting for 65 percent of the total increase in global advertising over the next five years. Most of that gain will come as advertisers substitute away from print media.” In India, the above trends are not likely to set in before at least another 5 years. Indian Print Industry needs to utilise this time period from 2016 to 2020 for protecting their future by ensuring immediate availability of print media currency, developing and promoting the websites and last but not the least, effectively converting more literates into readers.

     

    Indrani Sen is a veteran media agency and marketing services professional. She is currently an Independent Consultant and Adjunct Faculty, Media Management at Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. This column will appear fortnightly. The views expressed here are her own.

     

  • With BARC's rural ratings foray, marketers will put on their thinking caps and rewrite their media briefs, plan for better distribution channels in rural India as well as logistics for reaching out faster to the rural consumers, writes Indrani Sen

    Guest Column by Indrani Sen | BARC goes Rural: The Great Media Manthan

    By Indrani Sen

     

    The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has churned the ocean of Indian TV audience and has found the nectar of rural market reach for our marketing and advertising industry. Startling trends about urban plus rural combined TV Audience Measurement, based on data collected over 22 to 31 weeks, were revealed at the BARC Road Show in Mumbai on September 7. Adding of Bharat (rural) to India (urban) in the survey has increased the average daily reach of TV by 3 times to a whopping 450 million!

     

    The 30-minute total (urban +rural) gross impressions is 19.5 billion with urban share of 10.6 billion. Rural India has clocked 8.8 billion impressions against 7.7 billion clocked by 1 lakh+ C&S towns in urban!! Moreover, rural rat (number of individuals in 000s of a target audience who viewed an “event” on TV, averaged across minutes) contributes more than 50% in some large regional demographics – AP/TL 53%, RAJ 54%, UP 55% and PHCHP 59%. In the Hindi Speaking Markets (HSM) all states have 50%+ rural rat except MP and JH. In Western India, both MH and GUJ have rat shares tilted towards urban (64% in each state). In Southern India, rural rat ranges from Kerala 45% to TN 46% to KAR 48% to AP/TL 53%. Eastern India is divided into two pockets with three states (Assam &NE, Bihar and Odisha) having 50% + rural rat and the other two states (WB and JH) having around 40% rural rat.

     

    Among the highlights of the findings presented by BARC at the Road Show, rural rat shares of 41% in Hindi Movie genre and 45% in Hindi GECs genre were expected after viewing the shares across the states. The real shocker to the audience at Nehru Centre was 45% share of rural rat in English Entertainment genre! In the post-IPL weeks (22 to 31 weeks) 48% rural rat in Sports genre also came as a surprise. Among the various language news genres, rural rat of Hindi is 37% , followed by Tamil 38%, Telegu 42%, Kanada 45% and Malayalam 48%. Rural rat of Marathi and Bengali news genres have scored respectively 34% and 31%. With poor penetration of newspapers in rural India, it is disappointing to note that the rural rat is not showing higher share in the regional news genre. Kerala stands out as an exception with high rural penetration of Malayalam newspapers as well as Malayalam news channels.

     

    The advertising industry will have to sacrifice reports for ‘Below 1 lakh’ towns in order to get the rural data as BARC will report the all=India TV ratings by four pop strata, ie. Mega cities, 10 to 75 lakh towns, Below 10 lakh urban areas and rural.  Currently, out of 22,000 BARC meters, 16,000 are deployed in urban and 6,000 in rural areas covering population in 1000+ villages. The ratio is opposite of the ratio of number of people/ households in urban and rural India.  Census 2011 over Census 2001 showed a 75% growth in proportion of TV HHs in rural India. BARC has reported 153.5 million TV HHs, of which 77.5 million (50.5%) are in urban and 76.0 million (49.5%) are in rural. As mentioned before, 8.8 billion (45%) of half-hour impressions are coming from the rural sector. It may not be long before the industry urges BARC for reviewing the distribution of meters across urban and rural India and increasing the proportion of meters in rural India.

     

    For some time,we have seen the writing on the wall about the growth in our rural market potential as reported by many independent market surveys and realised by marketers from their own sales reports. BARC quoted some such findings in its presentation to lay the foundation for its discovery. Yes, it is a discovery as these findings will now help our marketing and advertising industry to reach the rural audience effectively through a mass media for the first time, delivering numbers which print can not deliver. Marketers will put on their thinking caps and rewrite their media briefs, plan for better distribution channels in rural India as well as logistics for reaching out faster to the rural consumers. The TV industry will rethink its programming strategies with a large chunk of viewers following the “early to bed and early to rise” policy and spending 41 minutes less time daily on viewing TV than their urban counterparts. As the combined BARC Ratings roll out on a week-to-week basis, TV programmes will also start rolling across timebands/slots trying to balance between the viewing preferences of urban and rural viewers. The ranking of the TV channels by genres may also see some ups and downs as channels struggle to understand the viewing habits of Bharat v/s India. With Rural TV Ratings becoming a reality, media agencies and media channels will engage in qualitative research to understand the TV viewership habits and preferences of our rural audience about which we do not have much clue.

     

    The BARC Road Show also covered the formation of the Meter Company (for lack of a given name) and re-confirmed that 12,000 TAM meters will be duly acquired and overlaid on their existing sample structure with TAM having only the responsibility of running the data files from the meters to BARC. Responsibilities for all other functional areas covering from establishment survey to sampling design to processing, validating and publishing of data stay with BARC, which emerges as the sole TV ratings provider.  Between the sections on Meter Company and highlights of all India findings, BARC talked about the fidelity in its data which has been noticed during last few months. BARC cited the Nepal earthquake, Dr Abdul Kalam’s demise, the Gurudaspur Terror Attack, etc. as examples for breaking news or topical news which caused immediate spikes in viewership.  It was also pointed out how the absence of celebrity anchors (Kapil Sharma and Arnab Goswami) led to a substantial drop in the ratings of the respective channels (Colors and Times Now). It was interesting to note the presence of Technical Committee stalwarts and senior BARC consultants on the stage during the Q&A session which followed the presentation. However, the questions raised by the audience were more general than technical which did not relate to range of relative errors or comparative stability of data, etc.

     

    Finally, BARC deserves an applause for its performance in delivery of TV ratings and brilliant marketing strategy. During this year,it first released the HH level data in April followed by individual level data in June and now in September it is releasing the all-India level data covering urban and rural. 2015 is not a “Year of the Rat” by the Chinese Zodiac Calendar, but the way rat’000 figures released by BARC have been jumping over the industry from week-to-week, Vanita Kohli Khandekar may perhaps like to describe 2015 as “The Year of BARC RATs” in the next edition of her book The Indian Media Business.

     

    Indrani Sen is a media services veteran, having worked with JWT, later Mindshare and then with Emami. In recent years, she is an independed consultant and academic. She is Adjunct Professor in charge of the Media Management programme at the Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. The views expressed here are her own.