Print on recovery path: Burgeoning ad sale in Q3 & festive boost in Q4 raise hope for 2022

As Q3 wrapped up, print media in India had plenty of reasons to celebrate, with burgeoning ad sales being driven up further by the festive season in Q4. With the quarter ending soon, industry experts are fairly optimistic of reaching and crossing pre-Covid levels in 2022.

According to Girish Agarwal, Promoter Director, DB Corp, the last three-four months have seen a significant uptick in print advertising. “The increase in the revenue during Q3 is going absolutely on track, and during the season period, we have been able to achieve double digit growth in the retail segment over the base of 2019-20 i.e. pre-Covid period,” he notes.

According to a report by AdEx India, a division of TAM Media Research, the increase in ad sales was led by the services and education sectors. The report also stated that print media has witnessed a 93 per cent increase in ad volume in the July-September period, over its previous quarter, when the second wave of the pandemic finally began winding down.

While the festive season definitely propelled print ad sales, and a resulting increase in consumption of products, the trajectory is still on an upswing, with a broad spectrum of categories driving the growth. Agarwal elaborates, “The increase in revenue is driven by the combination of three factors: impact of festive season; revenge buying, and positive market sentiments. It is interesting to note that the surge is driven by categories like real estate, education, healthcare, mobile apps, crypto currencies, online shopping, entertainment channels & OTT, edtech apart from traditional festive categories like jewellery.”

Sudeep Kumar, General Manager Media Solutions (Print), Mathrubhumi Group, agrees. He says, “Festival season alone is not the reason. There is a positive sentiment across the sectors now, which has resulted in improved ad volume. We saw over 70% growth over Q3, and during Q4, we should be doing 90 % of the business in comparison to pre-Covid period.”

Agarwal points out that in fact, except for automobiles, which faced some supply constraints due to a shortage of semiconductor chips, most categories have shown big growth. “From July 21, the market conditions started improving, and from August onwards, we have been able to achieve growth over the revenue of 2019-20 (pre-Covid period) in each month, which shows the improving confidence in the market,” he adds.

Mohit Jain, Board Member at Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd (Times Group), and Vice President Indian Newspaper Society, however cautions that supply chains are still affected and that may have an impact, at least in purchase fulfillment. “We still haven’t achieved pre-Covid levels in print ad sales just yet, and we’re going to have to see what happens.”

This is because of the deep dent that occurred during the first two quarters when the pandemic’s second wave engulfed the country, leading to both consumers and brands cutting costs at a time of deep emotional and economic distress. For instance, when compared to October-December 2020, print ads decreased by 13% in January-March 2021. Also, the number of categories, advertisers, and brands decreased by 1%, 13%, and 14%, respectively, in the period of Jan-March ’21 as compared to Jan-Mar’20. When the second wave was at its worst during Q2, from April to June, the numbers were bleeker.

However, Jain notes that confidence in the market is progressive and the more recent upswing in sales is definitely encouraging. “Q4 sales will definitely be better because of the buoyancy in the market. The second wave had a deep psychological impact, but since then confidence is returning across the board. What is most interesting is that the recovery in vernacular languages has outpaced English print media sales,” he says.

DB Corp, which publishes many of the country’s leading dailies in vernacular, can attest to that, with Agarwal pointing out the fact that the growth is large and covers so many segments, which tells us that it is not merely the festive period that is driving it. “We believe that this signals strong consumption trends and augurs well for the next quarter as well. We are expecting the Q4 to be on the similar growth trajectory as we have been foreseeing from August onwards and during the season period.”

Agarwal concludes, “The real estate category shall continue to be the major driver for the growth along with education, jewellery, lifestyle and automobile. Also, there is wedding season from November to February, which will drive lifestyle, consumer durables and jewellery categories.”