Budget 2022: No respite for Print & OOH; push for digital advertising with 5G rollout

Union Budget 2022 doesn’t have much to offer to the advertising and media sector. Stakeholders, especially the print and OOH players, have expressed disappointment as they were expecting some support from the government to rise from the pandemic-induced hardships.

While the newspaper industry was seeking a waiver in the 5% customs duty on newsprints that could result in a sizable reduction in costs for publishers, the OOH industry is expecting some concessions in CapEx and taxes. However, the budget presented in the house on Tuesday had no direct mention of the industries.

For the unversed, there was no customs duty for the newspaper industry before July 2019, when a duty of 10% was imposed. It was then slashed to 5% in the Union Budget 2020-21. There were no reductions made in the last budget too despite the print industry reeling under the pressures of the lockdown. 

Digital advertising is expected to get a push with the announcement of 5G spectrum auctions in the coming fiscal year. The COVID pandemic had deferred the government’s original roll-out plans that was 2020.

Rahul Vengalil, Managing Partner, Isobar, says, “5G is going to change the way content is going to be created. It will certainly give impetus to AR/VR and furthermore for faster adoption to Metaverse.”

All major telecom operators, including Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vi, are testing their 5G networks in various trials. The government is also in talks with telcos and other stakeholders about spectrum auctions, determining the final phase of the 5G rollout.

“The rollout of 5 G will bolster proliferation and penetration of broadband and telecom connectivity which will further boost Animation, Video, Voice, OTT, Gaming and personal targeting,” said experts.

Change in media mix on cards

The speed of data in 5G is set to reach around 10 GBPS (gigabits per second). To leverage the 5G,  ad agencies are gearing up to change their media mix with much more focus on digital space.

More OTT, short videos & mobile marketing

Mobile advertising suffers from lag times. Slow loading often robs advertisers of the opportunity to connect with the right consumer at the right time.

What appeals to advertisers is 5G’s faster data loads. Faster speeds mean more content to view – web pages, apps, games, and more. It will then translate to more advertising opportunities on mobile devices.

This means the ongoing democratization of entertainment through Gaming, OTT video, and Short-form Video formats will see a rapid surge and own the lion’s share of time spent on media by consumers across devices, especially mobile, experts say.

With issues like buffering, rendering taken care of, videos especially on Mobile could go mainstream with new levels of interactivity like playable shopping video formats, AR led interactive ad formats etc.

Voice to get prominence

Voice will also become extremely prominent due to 5G because the latency speed would no longer be an issue and this would greatly improve the experience of voice commands as user reactivity would increase. As a result, this would have an impact on voice commerce, knowledge transfer and definitely the use of voice assistants, thus, paving the way naturally towards interactive voice ads which would be personalized at scale.

AR and AI

5G is expected to transform the way consumers interact with augmented reality. In addition to offering more immersive Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) experiences, 5G may expand the connected functionality of remote-control drones, cars, and robots. Since connected spaces will expand, marketeers will have greater opportunities to expand their reach.

Personalized targeting

5G would help marketeers with targeting and segmentation possibilities. Data mining will become extremely effortless, opening up massive opportunities and possibilities to conduct personalised campaigns, predict consumer behaviour and even interests based on just how individuals search online.