Expecting 8-9% growth this festive season: Tarun Garg, Hyundai

Advertising is critical to a brand image and it is important to have the right budget for the right media mix, Hyundai’s Chief Operating Officer Tarun Garg said in a conversation with exchange4media as the carmaker collaborates with the 17^th season of the famous reality TV show Bigg Boss, that commenced on Sunday.

Garg was elevated as Hyundai’s COO overseeing Sales, Marketing, Service and product Strategy in January this year.

Here are the excerpts from our conversation with Tarun Garg:

What are your expectations from this festive season?

Very good. 2023 has been a great year for Hyundai because we have refreshed our portfolio. So many new models have been launched. We have grown by about 9% from January to September. We believe that this 8-9% growth will continue in this festival season. And we're talking about growth over a very good base of last year because 2022 Hyundai had the highest ever sales, domestic sales in India. We have a healthy pipeline. Also, there was a semiconductor shortage during the last two festive seasons, so people could not really get delivery of the car. This year we are happy that the supply issues are behind us. And we will be able to give Hyundai cars to our customers when they want them.

How does partnering with GECs impact your brand?

As you see, we have been in India for 26-27 years. We have always believed in raising the bar and creating some new benchmarks. The GEC channels give us access to tell the people of our country, what we are doing, and how we can really make their lives even better. Like recently, we had this campaign called “6 HAI TOH SAFE HAI”. We made six airbags mandatory in all our cars. So now it's a standard in all cars and all variants. Now, this is something we would want every Indian to know, not only the car-buying population because it is related to safety. And we all know how important safety is for all our lives for our dear ones as well.

My point is that people watch GECs as a family and as a brand, you get access across all age groups. People want to buy cars, where all the family members can really have a good time, I think this is something very critical. Especially in the COVID, we all realized the importance of our families even more. What better way to really connect to families together, especially the younger audience, in a very normal, engaging and immersive way than when they're watching a hit shows.

Are you investing in any other big properties on TV/OTT?

We have been associated with Kaun Banega Crorepati. We believe in long-term partnerships and staying invested. So, it has really helped us, of course, so we have Amitabh Bachchan ji in KBC, the show with the ability to connect to modern India and the youth of the country. So I think all these properties help us seamlessly integrate.

What is your media mix? What are your ad spends for digital and TV?

Advertising has been an integral part of our strategy because it helps us to build our brand, which not only helps you to sell today and tomorrow but for decades together. So, I think, it’s important to have the right advertising budget to have the right mix.

In the last four years, we have seen how people's affinity to digital has gone up, especially after COVID. So accordingly, the budgets in digital have gone up. Television has really come back with a bang, now with the ICC World Cup around, and all these premium properties around the festive season, which means that people are going to be glued to the television. I think there's a good balance which has happened because in COVID times it appeared as if OTT is going to bulldoze everything else. But I think there are some sticky behaviours, there are some behaviours, which come back to normalcy, I'm very happy that we have a good strong balanced portfolio between TV digital, OOH, which has again, come back because everybody's out. And of course print as well. I think it is a healthy mix. But clearly, digital is much more than what it used to be five years ago.

What drew you to Bigg Boss? What do you expect out of this partnership?

Bigg Boss has been a stellar show. We are in the 17th season. It has really connected very well with the people of India and it brings in a lot of engagement, and people, especially the younger crowd. If I talk about Hyundai, we have our customers who are getting younger and younger by the day. So, I think it's a very natural connect, and it's all about connection, winning and collaboration. And I think all these traits are well entrenched in the Bigg Boss house. And I believe Hyundai would be a natural fit to be a presenting sponsor this year, for Bigg Boss.