A festive cocktail: Newspapers offer Print + Digital ad packages to spark up sales
Industry experts are hopeful of a 20-25% spike in ad revenue in H2 as compared to H1
The festive season is around the corner and print publications are filled with optimism. The rise in consumer spending and improved engagement have already helped newspapers stand back on their feet with improved profit margins, along with a strong recovery in ad revenue numbers. Publishers are hopeful that the upcoming festive spending will give further momentum to this growth. The decline in newsprint rates, one of the primary cost components for publishers, has also contributed to a significant boost in earnings, giving publishers even more reasons to celebrate.
The year by far has played out well for the print sector. Jagran Prakashan, which runs national daily Dainik Jagran, reported advertisement revenues of Rs 373.19 crores in Q4 of FY 2023-24. This is up by 16.2% from Rs 321.30 crores during last year, same quarter. For Hindustan Times, ad revenues for the quarter grew by 9%. Dainik Bhaskar’s Q4 FY24 consolidated advertising revenue registered a growth of 25% Y-o-Y to Rs 445 crore.
With the coming festive quarters, these figures are expected to improve even further. Vinay Hegde, Chief Buying Officer of Madison World, is of the opinion that marketing spends usually go up by 50-60% as compared to the monthly average, so it is safe to say that a 20-25% spike in ad revenue can be expected in H2 as compared to H1.
Print + Digital = The formula to success
What’s new this year is that a lot of print publications are offering bundled packages of advertising on print along with digital. The strategy seems to be a great fit for metro cities as these areas are well-versed with digital news.
Mohit Jain, COO, BCCL, said, “Bundling of print and digital works if that is the type of audience that you want to reach. The success of the strategy will depend on the readers and their socio-economic classification.”
“When you are able to bundle the two mediums, then your reach becomes much wider. Those who are able to offer that, will be able to get a better market share,” he added.
In an earlier conversation, Girish Agarwal, Promoter Director of Dainik Bhaskar, had also shared that print publications are offering native advertising and content marketing solutions that seamlessly blend with editorial content, enhancing relevance and impact for brands. These strategies enable print publications to offer comprehensive and effective advertising solutions in today's digital landscape.
Inventory management during the festive season
When the demand for ad space gets so high, inventory management may become a task too. Hegde explained that publication groups fix the cost of their premium inventory like guaranteed jacket, front pages and innovations at higher than regular non-FCT rates. Some publications come up with highly incentivised schemes eyeing higher value and volume at the same time.
A study by TAM claimed that compared to Jan-Mar 23, ad space per publication observed growth of 10% in Jan-Mar 24 already.
The demand is definitely more, and whenever the demand moves up, publications are able to gather better rates, particularly for important positions, like banner ads or jacket ads. Now, the inventory is limited but it has very high impact positions, hence, the price hike is a consequential effect, shared Jain.
He further explained, “Jacket ads have more demand, because jackets are something which is able to create a higher impact, and is difficult to miss. Therefore, jackets are in very high demand during this period.”
Which categories are interested?
During Jan-Mar’24, cars, properties, two wheelers, coaching centers and hospitals collectively occupied 26% of ad space.
As per DB Corp’s quarterly financial results, one of the key factors contributing to the improving performance is the unwavering support from major advertisers across various sectors like real estate, automobile, education, jewellery, government and health sector.
Categories like real estate, jewellery, lifestyle, auto and retail (corporate and local retail both) and travel will invest heavily on print, as per Hegde. “E-Com clients like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra are likely to choose print during this period and prefer high impact and big formats to avoid clutter”.
New categories like, e-commerce, app and digital based start-ups are embracing prints for their market outreach, Agarwal said.
Jain revealed that consumer durables, electronics and real estate are the categories that are leading.
“Every industry which actually wants to improve their sales in this period chooses print in these 90 days, beginning from 15th of August till Diwali,” he further added.
Meanwhile, the industry is also in talks with the government for increase in the DAVP rates, which is expected to happen anytime. If that comes in, it will definitely add to the festive joy.
