By A Correspondent
Marketing services conglomerate GroupM says India’s adspends will grow 15.5 per cent in the year 2016. The media agency network also reported that adspends grew 14.2 per cent in 2015 over the similar period 2014.
Said CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia said, “India is the fastest growing ad market among all the major markets of the world. 2015 was the best year for ad spend growth we’ve had in the last five years. While global headwinds are building up in the new year, there are a number of positive factors that will help the Indian ad sector grow at higher levels in 2016. While FMCG, Auto and Ecommerce which have been the top sectors contributing to ad growth in 2015 will continue to invest, Telecom, BFSI and the Government sector will see a ramp up. Events like the T20 World Cup, IPL and many state assembly elections will give a further impetus to ad spends. India is one of the few large markets where all traditional media platforms will show positive growth.â€
FMCG remains the most dominant sector with a 28 per cent share of the AdEx. In 2016, e-commerce adspends are expected to be high on the back of increasing competition, market expansion and newer players entering the space. Many leading traditional retailers will be expanding their e-commerce presence in 2016 even as consolidation continues in the sector. Another exciting development is the opening up of e-commerce as a platform for advertising, which will see further traction in 2016.
With the advent of 4G services in India, telecom service providers are expected to roll out extensive marketing campaigns across media. According to GroupM, another big contributor to the Indian AdEx this year will be the auto sector, on the back of multiple launches across both 4-wheelers and 2-wheelers.
GroupM’s biannual advertising expenditure (AdEx) estimate report This Year Next Year (TYNY) has forecast India’s advertising investment to reach an estimated Rs 57,486 crore in 2016. The last calendar year saw ad expenditure closing at Rs 49,758 crore.
Added Lakshmi Narashimhan, Chief Growth Officer, GroupM South Asia: “With a significant number of users accessing internet primarily from a mobile device, adspends on mobile will become as large as the digital AdEx from two years ago. With digital media achieving audience reach numbers that are next only to Television, multiscreen planning is the order of the day. We have seen focused targeting of digital and native advertising with programmatic buying over the last two years, and this momentum will continue in 2016, as automation increases”.
GroupM estimates the Digital AdEx to grow by 47.5% in 2016 to Rs. 7,300 crore from the earlier Rs. 4,950 crores. A significant part of this growth is on the back of higher investments in cross-screen campaigns. The digital AdEx is estimated to take a 12.7% share of the total AdEx in 2016.
The year 2016 is estimated to be a better year for newspapers than 2015, the report notes. The increase in adspends expected from print heavy sectors like Auto, BFSI and the government sector augurs well for newspapers. Regional advertising of telecom and FMCG brands will benefit language dailies. While print as a medium is facing a lot of pressure from digital there is still headroom for growth in certain pockets and amongst certain audience clusters.
While radio is expected to grow at a little over 10%, there is scope for the medium to pick up towards end 2016 when most of the new stations (set up after Phase III licenses, round 1 were issued) are fully operational. Digital audio platforms are gaining in popularity, opening up a new format for radio.