Advertisers are adjusting their spending due to the combined impact of IPL (Indian Premier League) and elections in April. While the total ad spend might not see a huge increase, the focus will shift. According to Priyanka Kapur, Managing Partner, Zenith India, FMCG, Pan Masala, E-commerce and payment gateway companies are expected to spend the most on ads this season.
In a chat with Storyboard18, Kapur talks about brands aiming to achieve high reach and awareness during this period, growth of news and sports genre and the viewership split between TV and OTT platforms.
Edited excerpts
What is the kind of increase in ad spends that you are noticing this April due to the combined impact of IPL and elections?
The overall increase wouldn’t be much. The priorities and spread yes would be skewed. Election campaigns always are a bulk blocking phenomenon and for the short time they are present, they will take a significant share of the ad minutes. However, for advertisers, funds do get diverted to IPL and hence overall the situation doesn’t change too much.
What are the top ad spending categories experiencing the biggest surge in AdeX due to the combined effect of IPL and the upcoming elections?
FMCG and Pan Masalas would see the maximum spends as these are season agnostic. E-com players/payment gateways are the second growing category that build reach via such events.
What are the specific goals that brands are looking to achieve with their advertising campaigns during this period of heightened viewership?
Instant reach. Brand building doesn’t happen in cluttered environments. But to make people aware that the brand exists, this is a high reach period. Specially on news where the consumer is flirting with the content across channels and hence, unique reach is higher. On IPL, of course this comes at a much higher price and helps reach the light viewers.
Can you tell us which genres of programming are performing best in terms of ad viewership during the IPL and election season?
The tried and tested genres in India do not get impacted as much be it any event. Yes, being largely a single television household country , viewership’s do get affected but GECs still remain at top. News sees a surge but mostly in reach, not so much in time spent. IPL viewership is now increasingly getting split between TV and OTT which in turn reduces the impact on genres on television.
How significant is the ad rate growth compared to usual periods, (or, this time last year) considering both IPL and election?
There is definitely an increase in ad rate but only these two genres. Sports and news. The other genres still maintain their pricing. The demand is always enough for the stable and appointment viewing led genres to not go below the threshold pricing.
Besides IPL and elections, are there any other upcoming events or trends that you anticipate will impact media buying strategies?
The biggest trend is the increase in voices a viewer has. Content that is free and easily accessible. World Cup is the other upcoming event but we’ll have to wait and watch given its timing.