Festivals kickstart bounce-back of TV industry, October sees strong AdEx growth
According to TAM advertising data, overall ad volumes on TV grew by 7% during Oct'21 compared to Oct'20
The festive period this year has given the much-needed boost to businesses across sectors, including the television industry. After the Covid-induced dry spell in the first quarter, the industry witnessed strong growth in October. Even though October 2020 did well compared to 2019, October 2021 surpassed both 2019 and 2020 in terms of ad revenue, say industry watchers.
The recovery of the industry was highlighted by WPP India Country Manager CVL Srinivas at the recently held e4m Digital 40 under 40 Summit. He said the bounce-back has been stronger than expected. In CY2020, the AdEx in India de-grew by 20-25% versus CY2019. “If you look at the CAGR up to 2019, the Indian ad industry was growing in double-digits quite comfortably. Suddenly, we saw a big dip last year. This year, the ad industry will be up by 20-25%, albeit on a lower base. By 2022, we will far exceed 2019 levels. The bounce-back has been extremely robust in 2021. When we were going through the second wave, there was still some uncertainty but the lockdowns were not as severe as the first wave. In the recent past, cricket and the festive season have helped. Right now, the numbers are telling us that we will end the year with 20-25% growth in AdEx,” he said.
Numbers indicate that the overall AdEx is growing, and each sector in the industry is recovering, with the festive period speeding up the process.
According to TAM advertising data, overall ad volumes on TV grew by 7% during Oct'21 compared to Oct'20. Additionally, every week in Oct’21 had an increase in ad volume compared to the respective weeks of Oct’20; with the highest growth (11%) being noted in the third and fifth weeks of Oct'21.
“Actually, even October 2020 was very good, but 2021 was better than both 2019 and 2020. All mediums registered strong growth compared to the past two years, especially Print, OOH, and Digital. In some cases, we recorded our best-ever months. TV was held back by inventory shortage with broadcasters not carrying all inventory booked with them,” shared Madison Media Group CEO Vikram Sakhuja.
Sharing similar thoughts, Ashish Sehgal, Chief Growth Officer - Ad Revenue, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL), noted that the industry witnessed strong growth in October last year, surpassing the October 2019 level. “During October 2021, the AdEx grew 15-20% over the same period last year, whereas it was 27-30% higher than 2019. The strong growth was driven by two sporting events (IPL and ICC T20 World Cup), GECs and news.”
Linu John, VP, Zenith, further added, “In 2021, there were two major cricket events along with multiple impact shows, which increased the presence of advertisers in the media. There was good demand in the market due to the presence of these advertisers, most of whom had been dormant since 2019 due to Covid. Hence, cumulatively, this year saw the most aggressive festive period compared to the last two years. Clearly, this period has seen good traction in the market, barring some players who were affected due to other macro-economic factors.”
Meanwhile, the tally of categories, advertisers and brands grew by 2%, 3% and 5% respectively during Oct'21 compared to Oct'20, stated TAM report. Also, Milk Beverages followed by Toilet Soaps were the two top categories, with the medium witnessing over 390 categories. In October of this year, two new categories entered the top 10 list--Ecom-Online Shopping and Retail Outlets-Jewellers.
The report also stated that the Aerated Soft Drink category saw the highest surge in ad volumes with a growth of 113%, followed by Retail Outlets-Jewellers with 73% growth during Oct'21 compared to Oct'20. Interestingly, over 185 growing categories were present in Oct'21 compared to Oct'20 on TV.
Speaking about the categories that shelled out more money than usual, Sehgal noted that F&B, new-age ecom brands, BFSI, mobile phones, retail advertisers, services, edu-tech and crypto were seen forking out more dollars this year as compared to previous years. Some of the brands like Nykaa, Truecaller, Tide, Facebook, Meesho, Upstox, Amazon, Sensodyne, Vaseline, Policybazaar.com and Apple were among the other brands that didn’t shy away from spending this festive period, he said.
Sehgal also highlighted that the auto sector has tightened its pocket this year due to shortage of semiconductor chips that has been plaguing the category for months now. However, the sector is expected to bounce back December onwards.
“This year, the festive season has given a good kick-start to the advertising economy. Advertising hasn’t died down post-October. Even in November, we are seeing similar entusiasm by advertisers and this uplift in spend will go on till March. While some categories have slowed down in spending, there are new categories that are emerging. For instance, the auto sector is expected to bounce back by December. Players in the travel and BFSI sectors will also start spending. We also have elections next year, and the government, which has already started spending on ads, will continue to do so till March 2022. Therefore, AdEx growth looks strong till March next year,” concluded Sehgal.
According to Mansi Datta, Chief Client Officer & Head - North & West, Wavemaker India, macro picture shows AdEx in India is expected to grow 15-20% in 2021 vs 2020.
Datta too noted that a heavy sports calendar this year, with IPL and ICC T20 WC happening back-to-back, helped the festive period growth. And the GEC genre is not far behind with strong impact properties such as The Kapil Sharma Show, KBC, Bigg Boss, Big Picture etc.
“The demand for inventory is higher by 25-30% than 2019. In fact, the demand for inventory on TV was so high that some broadcasters were not able to book the full inventory received. In volume and value terms, both Print and Radio did see a good season with a rebound in demand, but they are still behind the pre-Covid year of 2019.”
Among the advertisers, Hindustan Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser India were the top two during both Oct’21 and Oct’20, as per the TAM report. Also, Amazon Online India, ITC and Colgate Palmolive India were the new entrants in the Top 10 advertisers’ list. Additionally, Horlicks was the top brand during Oct'21 followed by Amazon.in. During Oct'21, total 4400 brands appeared on TV.
