DIGITAL TO HIT 30% OF AD SPENDS IN 2020: GROUPM TYNY REPORT

According to GroupM’s ‘This Year, Next Year’ (TYNY) 2020 report released recently, India’s advertising investments will grow by 10.7%, for the calendar year 2020 to reach an estimated size of Rs 91,641 crore this year. It forecasts that India will continue to top the list as the fastest-growing major ad market in the world, and will be the third-highest contributor to the incremental ad spends globally, only behind the UK and the USA, while China drops to fourth spot. Digital is estimated to reach 30% of ad spends in India in 2020, with growth coming from 3Vs (video, voice, vernacular-Indic) and advertising on e-commerce.

Commenting on the TYNY 2020 report, Prasanth Kumar, CEO - GroupM South Asia said, “While we expect sustained and stable investment across media in India, Digital is set to garner 65% of incremental ad spends in 2020. India faces challenges and uncertainties across sectors just like other markets. However, this also brings opportunities for brands to innovate because of which we see an evolving media stack. This will be propelled by greater use of technology and better content across media.”



TRENDS THAT WILL SHAPE THE DECADE

1: Brands will move from trend-spotting to culture creation by becoming content creators both in the online and offline world: To gain loyalty brands will have to go beyond traditional norms of marketing and create a culture around the brand.

2: Attention is easy, but where’s engagement! Brands will need to sharpen the communication narrative to innovate and find new ways of engaging consumers. Personalization at scale with human touch will become critical.

3: The Trust Paradox: Building trust in the age of the conscious consumer will push brands to establish trust by being genuine and honest. Brands will have to play a cautious role in the way they collect user data and engage with users.

4: AI used to understand behaviour can now be used to influence behaviour: All content being consumed today is being personalized by an algorithm that’s trying hard to get to know us and our interest. Therefore, marketing to algorithms and not humans may be a very big trend to watch out for.

5: New retail & social commerce will drive the next phase of commerce: Creating a seamless experience across online and offline and connecting internal ecosystems to manage trade for an omni-channel world will be a key factor in the retail world.

6: Audio 2.0-Pump up the volume: There is an increase in time spent and consumption of audio-led content. Brands will invest behind building audio experiences and create journeys inclusive of audio and voice. Voice will be input while audio is output – audio will lead the touchless user experience.

7: Platform-specific strategy vs integrated strategy: The way consumers react to content, the time they spend, the content they consume and the content they create differ from platform to platform. Marketers will need to adopt a platform-specific strategy while drawing brand communication plans.

8: Immersive experiences vs passive experiences: In India, the number of game developers has increased 10x in the last decade and India still holds the highest number of game downloads in the world. Brands may need to find ways to use gaming in a big way to engage with audiences. The next decade will see India culturally embracing e-sports across demographics and genres.

9: Customizing the content for Indic languages: Preference for content in Indic languages is a clear indication and opportunity for content creators and marketers. Marketers may need to start creating content and advertising communications in multiple languages.

10: From FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) to JOMO (Joy of Missing Out): More and more consumers feel the need to switch off from the digital world. This will be getting wider traction and more social acceptance. Experiences that aid in digital detox - slow food, slow travel, healing festivals, etc., - may take prominence and offer a good opportunity to be capitalized on.