he first six months of 2023 witnessed a subdued rise in television ad volumes, while ad expenditure clocked an 8 to 9 percent growth. As the festive season approaches, anticipation is building for a brighter outlook. Upcoming marquee events, including the Cricket World Cup, are poised to reenergise television advertising in the latter half of the year.
As per audience measuring firm TAM’s latest half-yearly television report, the first half (H1) of the year between January and June 2023 did not see any significant year-on-year ad volumes growth. If compared to the same period in 2021, both H1 2022 and H1 2023 saw 3 percent growth in television ad volumes.
Why H1 failed to perform
“Growth rate in the first half is a little muted on account of inflationary pressures faced by key advertising categories and funding winter encountered by startups and new-age companies. However, I am confident that the second half of the year is going to be remarkable,” said Chirag Shah, vice president, Madison Media Sigma, a media planning and buying firm.
There’s more to it.
“The growth must have been slow as large events did not see revenues as expected. The measurement numbers have also been indicating the trend of traditional media slowing down. This somewhere thus adversely impacts the ad spends,” said Sujata Dwibedy, chief investment and trading officer, Amplifi, the supply-side management platform of dentsu, the leading Japan-headquartered advertising company.
The first half also saw some positives and growth
Talking about positives, Shah said, “The food and beverages sector continued to dominate the H1 AdEx (advertising execution) and in fact did make up for the AdEx loss seen in some sectors. Top sectors like e-com services and personal healthcare did lose out on share, whereas the auto sector moved up the pecking order and was among the top five sectors in H1 of 2023. Growth of the auto category was fuelled by new launches by Maruti, Renault, Bajaj Auto and TVS.”
Top brands, sectors and categories
TAM’s half-yearly report tallies with Shah’s observations. According to this, in the first six months of this year, TV had more than 8,800 brands advertising. Reckitt Benckiser dominated with five out of the top 10 brands, followed by Hindustan Unilever that had two brands in the same list. Some of the top brands in the period were Harpic Power Plus 10x Max Clean, Dettol Antiseptic Liquid, Lizol All in 1, Dettol Toilet Soaps, Jiocinema App, Harpic Bathroom Cleaner, Glow & Lovely Advanced Multivitamin, Close-up Ever Fresh, Santoor Sandal and Turmeric, and Colgate Dental Cream.
In terms of sectors, like Shah said, in January-June 2023, food and beverage took the top spot contributing 23 percent share of ad volumes, followed by personal care/personal hygiene with a 17 percent share.
When it came to categories, the top 10 categories together added 31 percent share of ad volumes in the period with biscuits being the new entrant in the list. The top ten categories during this period were toilet soaps, followed by toilet/floor cleaners, e-com/media/entertainment/social media, washing powders/liquids, toothpastes, aerated soft drinks, milk beverages, biscuits, shampoos and chocolates.
Expectations from H2 (July-December 2023)
“We are looking forward to the festive season. We should see substantial growth as key sporting events like the World Cup, Asia Cup, bilateral series (all cricket events), and ISL (Indian Super League, the soccer showcase) are scheduled in the second half. Reality shows like Indian Idol, Big Boss, Khatron ke Khiladi, KBC, India’s got Talent, etc., are also all scheduled in the second half,” Dwibedy added.