‘Linear TV continues to be dominant in the middle & bottom of the pyramid’

Be it advertisers, broadcasters or agency people, they all rely on the four pillars of Consumers, Business, Ecosystem and Shareholders, remarked Harsh Deep Chhabra, Senior Vice President, Mindshare Fulcrum, at the ‘Addressable TV and Beyond’ summit hosted by GroupM's Finecast on Wednesday. He was speaking on ‘Performance Marketing on TV - an FMCG advertiser perspective’.

Chhabra explained that the most important pillar was the consumer. "We need to understand consumer habits as per the medium – demography, geography and the psychographic level. Irrespective of whether we are an advertiser or a media owner, this is what we are eventually chasing."

“We need to make sure that our brands look at the demography or the geography, while considering penetration, mind measures or market share,” he added.  

According to Chhabra, the third most important pillar in the entire ecosystem is to get to that consumer from a business standpoint. He went on to say that the industry needs to increase adoption of whatever is available to media owners, whether it's data, content or regular inventory. 

Eventually, it is the shareholders that everyone is answerable to, he said. “They care about future proofing deliveries and making sure that we are able to meet up on target. So, these are the four pillars of our business and this is what we should actually care about.” 

Chhabra went on to say that consumers have now taken to mediums that are addressable, and that's changed the scenario a lot, as far as other pillars are concerned. 

“The most important thing is that they're not going off media, they are actually spending more time on media, it is just a form of consumption, which is changing. So, video inventory is available for an advertiser today to reach out to these audiences.”

There are nearly 80 million cord cutters, Chhabra pointed out. “Cord cutters and shavers now stand at 75% in NCCS A. They are either not consuming linear TV at all, or are light consumers of the medium. But TV is still the most dominant medium.” 

In NCCS BC, which is at 82% penetration as far as television is concerned, the next medium is at 47% and that is where linear TV continues to be important. “It's not that the whole world is shifting to connected TV. Linear TV still continues to be dominant in the middle and bottom of the pyramid. It's the top of the pyramid that is adopting connected TV and other forms of internet.” 

He also shared that consumers of linear TV largely belong to the older age group. “Audiences are moving away from TV. It is a combination of impressions and time spent.” 

Further talking about the business, Chhabra mentioned that advertisers are not interested in purchasing TV GRPs. They are rather interested in selling soaps and shampoos and are concerned with business growth from market to market, he noted.