What propels the sudden explosion of new advertisers from new categories on the Television screen? For first time advertisers on Television, it continues to be the ultimate marketplace and the best medium to woo the huge market that is still offline. TV also ensures that marketers get good bang for the buck, and has no rival to match its audio-visual experience, reach and impact
By Saloni Dutta
“The power of Television in this country is far beyond what the gurus would like to believe and it is going to stay longer than the gurus would like to believe,” says ad guru Piyush Pandey.
They say it’s the digital age but ironically, multi-million dollar sales on e-commerce portals are fuelled by TV advertisements. If e-commerce has to go to Television to make it viable, this only boasts about the power of the medium. “In today’s scenario, if you are on TV, you are seen to be serious about the game that you are playing,” comments Pandey, Executive Chairman and Creative Director, South Asia, Ogilvy & Mather India.
There is no denying the power of the medium and that is what is fuelling more and more new brands and categories to debut on the small screen. TV has proved to be the go-to medium to promote big ticket events by e-commerce giants Flipkart, Amazon and Myntra, and get both first-timers and regular buyers to transact online. Talking about the categories which have grown on TV, Hari Krishnan, MD, ZenithOptimedia says, “Just to give a perspective, there are approximately 1,400 new advertisers across all TV channels between Jan- Sep this year alone. Online portals, e-commerce, and smartphones have grown. Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, OLX, Quickr, Karbonn, Gionee, Cardekho are just a few names in the list.” Brands across these e-tailer categories have been contributing significantly to the Television advertising pie in the last 8-10 months, reaching an estimated market-share of 12% in the total television advertising pie, making them the third largest spenders on Television. The largest contributors continue to be fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies with spends in the region of 35-40% of the total advertising pie. Telecom and consumer durable companies contribute around 18 to 20% each.
NEW KINDS OF ADVERTISERS
E-commerce has been the star student this year, emerging with full marks and grabbing eyeballs in the media domain. Talking about Television-specific advertising, it has emerged as the biggest category in the last couple of years from a minimal presence to a complete media blowout. They are the new colas of TV advertising, with budgets rivalling the season spends of cola majors. Other upcoming brand categories on Television include luxury, healthcare, education, real estate, mobile applications and mobile handset manufacturers. Among regular advertisers, electronic majors have started looking at dominance through niche genres on Television like News, English Entertainment, Fashion, etc.,. Dotcoms, and within dotcoms Fashion and Lifestyle, Retail and Matrimonials are among the big spenders.
Until a few years ago, real estate companies seldom advertised on Television. They were most often seen in Print ads. Now, many of the larger players have approached Television. Education is another category that is prevalent, with big and small Universities and other educational institutes reaching out through Television.
Luxury brands too are now taking to Television, though with a more niche targeting. “It is late realization for luxury brands to go on TV; they were already on Print. By any definition, a general Print has got far more wastage than Television, because the latter is cheaper than the Print medium,” says Avinash Pandey, Chief Revenue Officer, MCCS and COO, ABP News.
Looking at data over the past two years, political ads have been the number one gainer because of the elections this year. Comparing ad spends of 2013 and 2014 (upto September), industry data shows that these newer categories are the ones which have grown fastest and are expected to grow even bigger by the end of the year. It’s understood that Unilever and P&G will hunt for viewers on TV with huge marketing budgets, but the newbies too will smartly utilize TV for massive reach and instant impact. Says Avinash Pandey, “Television works because it is cheaper, effective and reaches a mass audience. It is far cheaper to deliver reach than Print. News television, in particular, has a gained a lot through advertising by e-commerce portals.”
Experts are also attributing this rise of categories of advertisers on TV to fragmented TV viewership. Says T Gangadhar, MD, MEC India, “Fragmentation has curtailed the spillover due to a massive reach and has allowed consumers to form groups according to the content and channel, thus becoming easier to be located, spotted and convinced.”
A lot of new brands aspire to reach the national level as soon as possible. “If a brand is on TV, the general impression it gives is that it is a big brand and a national brand. The other thing is that it gets you instant recognition very fast because TV has good reach; it is an audio-visual medium and very quickly a lot of people get to know you. That big brand feel and quick reach is the reason why people want to get into it,” says Ashish Bhasin, ?Chairman & CEO South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network.
CASHING IN ON INSTANT ROI
Of late, e-commerce portals have spearheaded the development of high impact, high ROI campaigns on TV. This golden combination of Digital and Television is highly suited for the new e-commerce portals to generate instant boost in sales. Earlier, companies used to wait for 4-6 weeks to check for ROI from TV advertising, but e-commerce has changed the way Television ROI is being measured. Bhasin says e-commerce companies have proved to be the smartest TV advertisers. “These e-commerce companies are data rich, unlike the traditional companies, where effects of any advertising comes with a 4-6 week lag. E-commerce companies can track impact of any advertising instantly. This can help optimize TV advertising to a large extent, for example, how much should be the split between brand-led advertising versus specific offers. While the former will increases direct traffic on the website, offers on certain product categories can help track incremental transactions.”
Explaining why new advertisers are opting for TV, Hari Krishnan says, “New advertisers gain high reach in a short period of time on Television. TV also enables these brands to give the audience a more engaging, entertaining audio-visual experience, critical to drive awareness and retention.”
Dealing with disadvantages
Typically, new entrants have been very sceptical about using TV as a medium. Though TV has 90% reach across any audience segment, an advertiser did not know whether he was reaching the 30% audience relevant to him. Coupled with that came practical problems of TV advertising like clutter, inflation and tight inventory. But despite all of these, TV has been the preferred choice for most of the serious new entrants in the emerging Indian market, and the favorite hunting ground for new businesses growing online.
Brands like Snapdeal and Flipkart have developed smart strategies which have beaten the big ticket campaigns of big size advertisers on TV. This has sparked off a debate that TV is not always a costly affair; brands can prosper even on low budgets.
However, choosing Television is not a fixed formula to success. The communication strategy has to be in perfect order, with the right message at the right time to the right consumer. New generation TV advertisers also have to be careful about putting money in a bad creative, which is not going to get them anywhere. Many of them either just cut corners on production, not realizing the need for a good creative, or they don’t have the capability or the right agency partners to produce it.
Meanwhile, commenting on the outlook for Television in India, MK Anand, MD and CEO, Times Television Network, says, “The forecast for 2022 is that 49% of the Indian M&E industry is going to be TV, it is 48% in 2012. So the significance of television is not going to change in any manner because of Digital.”
Feedback: saloni.dutta@exchange4media.com
