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  • Leagues propel Indian sports industry to Rs 48,069 million in 2015: GroupM

    Leagues propel Indian sports industry to Rs 48,069 million in 2015: GroupM

    MUMBAI: From being a country that thrived on a single sport namely cricket, India has come a long way in the last couple of years. The country witnessed a sports boom of sorts with the mushrooming of various sports leagues. And with that came in the moolah in terms of sponsorships and advertisements.

     

    According to a report by GroupM ESP and SportzPower, the overall sports industry in India has grown by 10 per cent – up from Rs 43,725 million in 2013 to Rs 48,069 million in 2015. However, cricket saw a dip in on-ground and cricket team sponsorship. While on-ground sponsorship fell from Rs 5083 million to Rs 4647 million, team sponsorship was down to Rs 3478 million from Rs 3892 million.

     

    The growth in the industry has come mainly on the back of the emergence of new sports leagues – Indian Super League, Pro Kabaddi League, World Kabaddi League, Champions Tennis League and Indian Premiere Tennis League. FIFA was the big factor for the increase in TV spends.

     

    The second edition of GroupM ESP and SportzPower’s report on sports sponsorship captures the emergence of new leagues in India along with other key highlights. The report captures the trends and developments in advertising and sponsorship in the Indian sports industry in 2014.

     

    Speaking on the future of sports marketing in India, GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas says, “Sports marketing is finally coming of age in India. Even though cricket has shown the way and continues to be the dominant sport, newer leagues are helping broad base sports and make it a great platform for brands. Digital, especially social media, is helping build a fan following much faster. At GroupM, we made inroads into sports marketing some years ago and are now scaling up our practice.”

     

    The second edition of report examines:

    • Emergence of five new leagues in India.
    • Advertising investments and sponsorship in Indian sport from four angles: On-Ground, Team Sponsorship (subset franchise fees), Athlete Endorsement, and On-Air spends
    • Investments in sports besides cricket
    • 10 trends in the sports broadcast industry

     

    Focusing on the key developments that are expected in 2015, GroupM ESP national director, sports & live events Vinit Karnik says, “The key highlights of this report are on-ground sponsorships, team sponsorships and franchise fees, social conversations and endorsements. The sports industry has grown by 10 per cent in 2014 and seen the formation of newer leagues and successful franchises. From a single sports country to a multi-sport country, India is witnessing a boom, which will benefit the sports business ecosystem. In 2015, we predict to see a change in the way consumers interact in the realm of sports and entertainment.”

     

    SportzPower co-founder Thomas Abraham further discusses the future of sports broadcasting in India. “Other sports are emerging gradually with the onset of many new league styled sport events. Even though FIFA was a big factor in the increase in TV spends in 2014, cricket yet dominated Indian sports TV broadcasting with back to back cricketing sports tournaments like the World Cup and IPL, although there was a rise in viewership of other sports too,” he says.

     

    Key Observations:

     

    · From a single sports country to a multi-sport country; India is witnessing a sports boom.

     

    · The entertainment value adds the necessary pull for the new leagues, as audiences are being offered a wide platter of sportainment that is being relished by one and all.

     

    · Split beam: India being a diverse regional market with large linguistic preference, networks have begun to offer feeds in regional languages too. This will grow further with split beams leading to ad-versioning with even regional advertisers getting a slice of the pie.

     

    · TV & Digital: The lines are now blurring. The ICC Cricket World Cup had more than 25 million views on digital. IPL is slated to surpass that in the current 2015 season.

     

    On Ground

     

    · Dip in cricket on-ground numbers are mainly due to lesser matches being held in India in 2014 – only eight cricket matches were played in India in 2014 vis-?-vis 21 matches in 2013. IPL also had no new central sponsor, resulting in a flat year for IPL ground sponsorship.

     

    · New leagues contributed in driving the growth for on-ground sponsorship. While ISL had 10 sponsors at the central level with almost Rs 500 million sponsorship amount; Coca Cola – IPTL was the landmark deal.

     

    Social Conversation

     

    · IPL had over 550,000 social conversations. In spite of the first season, ISL had around 200,000 conversations. 

     

    · PKL (70,000) has more conversation than IPTL (32,000) & HIL (11,000) put together, even though Kabaddi is the least talked about sports in India.

     

    · Pepsi received 41 per cent visible mentions with IPL, whereas 29 per cent associated with Hero Moto Corp with ISL.

     

    Team Sponsorship & Franchise Fee

     

    · Indian cricket team sponsorship price was reduced to Rs 20 million/match from Rs 33.3 million/match with the new sponsorship of Star India. Also IPL 2014 team sponsorship money saw a dip in 2014 from Rs 2750 million to Rs 2537 million, because of the tournament partly shifting to UAE.

     

    · Other sports have also contributed in growth of team sponsorship & franchise fee due to the new sports league. While Football registered a 227 per cent increase from Rs 265 million to Rs 603 million powered principally by the ISL, it was the emergence of other leagues – notably IPTL, CTL, PKL, and WKL that saw a spectacular 1,064 per cent jump from Rs 70 million to Rs 745 million.

     

    · Social & search data depicts different trends for different leagues – while the popularity of IPL led the Search and Social data trends independent to each other; Social and Search data for the other leagues were almost parallel to each other.

     

    Endorsement

     

    · A 14 per cent dip was seen in overall sports celebrity endorsement from Rs 3822 million in 2013 to Rs 3278 million in 2014.

     

    · While the new kids like Virat Kohli’s endorsement fee and number of endorsement brands are going up steadily, for the old boys like Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag, the number of endorsements and fee per endorsement have gone considerably down.

     

    · Moving off cricket and the top earners are all women of substance. Boxer Mary Kom, tennis ace Sania Mirza and badminton queen Saina Nehwal (in that order) are the Big Three of Indian non-cricket sports brand endorsements.

     

    · Tiger Woods endorsing Hero Moto Corp is first-of-its-kind in non-cricketing sports industry– Rs 500 million per year.

     

    · Social & Search Data – While Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar were the most talked about & searched on digital media athletes in 2014; Saina Nehwal, Mary Kom and Sania Mirza are keeping the flame alive for non-cricketing sports.

     

    Year 2015:

     

    · Non-cricket sports are likely to expand the sports business ecosystem.

     

    · Live match content is being repurposed in multiple ways to facilitate social consumption. This trend is slated to grow even bigger in 2015.

     

    · Sporting entities will evolve by building digital and social assets to drive their valuation.

     

    · Sports businesses are predicted to build strong grassroots engagement through experiential programs.

     

    · In stadium experience will be more social and thus, more enhanced. Given that 70 per cent of fans bring a mobile device to the stadium or arena, they are expected to use it during a game too.

     

    · Pro Kabaddi League is the one to watch out for!

     

    Conclusion:

     

    In 2015, non-cricket sports are likely to expand on the lines of various trends all around. Live match content will repurpose in multiple ways to facilitate social consumption. Sports businesses will build strong grassroots engagement through experiential programs. In stadium experience will be more social, more enhanced, as a large majority of fans bring a mobile device to the stadium or arena and will be expected to use it during the game.

     

  • Mindshare leads Media Abby Awards metal tally; Bennett, Coleman & Co. leads publisher category

    Mindshare leads Media Abby Awards metal tally; Bennett, Coleman & Co. leads publisher category

    GOA: If women empowering the Republic Day parade saw a revolution in the Indian armed forces, women representation during the Abby Awards of the 10th Goa fest was a supreme encouragement. There were more women creative minds representing agencies when compared to men.

    In a flamboyant evening of joy and happiness in Goa, the Abby award winners for Publisher and Media category were announced. The awards were distributed by eminent personalities like Madison World chairman Sam Bhalsara, Group M South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas, Goa Fest Jury chairman Pratap Bose, Dentsu Aegis chairman India and CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin, Times Network CEO MK Anand and Lodestar Universal India CEO Shashi Sinha.

    Speaking about the competition and entries in the 2015 edition of the Goa Fest, Bose said, “The number of entries has increased to 674 compared to 619 last year in the media category. Entries this year have been highest when compared to any edition of the festival. The decision was taken after four days of detailed analysis by dignitaries from respective countries. The Publisher award started last year, saw 62 entries, which is exactly the same as 2014. This sector needs to improve.”

    Apart from India, entries were accepted from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan and when asked if there was a possibility of expanding it beyond the Asian sub-continent, Bose said, “Not in near future! There is no plan of further expansion as the beauty is that these are Indian awards judged by Indian dignitaries, who understand the market for the agency that they work for.”

    He added, “There is no such difference in quality of work compared to last year and there is no trend or platform emerging as dominant. The work has been as versatile as it was. Winners from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh signify that international entries have been commendable, which is a huge encouragement.”

    Media metals tally is lead by Mindshare with a total of 11 metals, followed by Madison Media with 10. Out of the 74 distributed metals, there were 12 Golds, 23 Silvers and 39 Bronze awards.

    Click Here for the winners list:

     

  • Industry gears up for 3rd IAA Leadership awards

    Industry gears up for 3rd IAA Leadership awards

    MUMBAI: The International Advertising Association’s (IAA) India chapter will be holding the third edition of the IAA Leadership awards. The awards celebrate and recognize various individuals from across the fields of marketing, advertising and media, bringing them to one common platform.

     

    The awards will be held on 18 April, 2015 at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai.

     

    For the third year running, the IAA India chapter will honour women and men in the marketing, advertising and media community for their outstanding performance, innovation and creativity in delivering path breaking marketing initiatives. Twelve categories have been hand-picked based on exhaustive quantitative and qualitative parameters.

     

    This year, shortlisted individuals will undergo even sharper scrutiny by a jury comprising industry stalwarts namely Sunil Alagh (SKA Advisors), Sangeeta Pendurkar (Kelloggs), Kaushik Roy (Reliance), Neeraj Roy (Hungama), CVL Srinivas (GroupM), Gayatri Yadav (Star India), Ramesh Narayan, Raj Nayak (Colors), and Srinivasan K Swamy (IAA India Chapter president). The overall process is validated by Ernst & Young.

     

    Swamy said, “The high admiration that the IAA Leadership Awards has earned from the community in the past two years fuels our enthusiasm to return with our third edition with a bang. We are gearing up to applaud the efforts of those marketers and professionals whose hard work has borne fruition in the past year.”

     

    To add authenticity to the awards and maintain transparency in judging the campaigns, IAA has further streamlined the process, to determine the winners. For shortlisting the nominees, IAA along with its knowledge partner analysed the media spends and market presence of brands between 1 January and 31 December, 2014.

     

    The shortlisted nominees across categories were examined closely by the expert panel of jury members who looked at market share data, growth and other qualitative aspects to pick the winners in each category.

  • Kyoorius launches ‘Melt’; says not competing with Goafest

    Kyoorius launches ‘Melt’; says not competing with Goafest

    MUMBAI: “Today there is a lot of talk about digital media, technology and data, but ultimately ours is an “ideas” business. And it’s great ideas that build great brands,” announced GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas. 

    Clinging on the same lines has witnessed the birth of a festival of creativity – Melt 2015, at the convergence of advertising, digital, media, marketing and emerging technology.

    Launched by Kyoorius in partnership with the three lords in the media and entertainment sector – D&AD, GroupM and Zee Entertainment Enterprises, the two day festival is an attempt to fill the gap, which addresses the blurred lines of advertising, marketing and digital space.

     

    “We felt there is nothing happening in India that stimulates the entire marketing and communications industry at large. So while there is something happening for the marketing, advertising and digital independently, it does not happen at the convergence of all these three put together,” said Kyoorius CEO Rajesh Kejriwal. 

    Elaborating on choosing the name Melt for the event, Kejriwal said that the lines are blurring today. “The media company is also doing creative and digital work and then there are digital agencies that are doing creative work. Advertising agencies have opened their own digital houses. It has all become a melting pot and so the name.”

     

    The festival doesn’t have sponsors, but has partners. These include: Hindustan Times, Happy Finish, Afaqs, Pepperfry, Future Laboratory, Hyper Island, The Partners, BrandMusiq, One Eyeland, Maxus, YouTube, Google, BARC and many more in the pipeline.

    To be held on 21 and 22 May at Nehru Center and NSCI at Worli, Mumbai, the festival will be filled with seminars, exhibitions and workshops, which will culminate with the Kyoorius Advertising and Digital Awards Night on 22 May to be held at NSCI Stadium. 

    Kyoorius expects close to 5000 delegates and 60 speakers attending the event across the two days. The event could also see close to 25 partners. “Next year will be larger wherein people from South East Asia will also be participating,” informed Kejriwal. 

    A lot of research has gone into creating the festival. “We met a number of marketing people and understood their problems and the terms that they didn’t understand, which could range from content marketing to brand activation. Through the research we found that there was a common problem between the media and the marketing people and so we wanted to put content that addresses their core issues,” added Kejriwal. 

    The sessions will address all issues across platforms. Starting with a creativity conference, which is aimed at the advertising community, day one will also see learning for the media people, for Facebook and Twitter marketing, session on measurement with the coming in of new ratings body amongst others.

    “Different partners have come onboard to curate content. There will be workshops like the Sonic branding workshop, YouTube workshop on launching a YouTube channel, on being a YouTube star etc,” informed Kejriwal. 

     

    According to GroupM’s Srinivas, the benefit of an event like this is that it can attract talent. “The biggest challenge as an industry is to be able to attract talent and then sustain them, because over a period of time advertising doesn’t remain an attractive career option. It is through events like these that we will bring the advertising sector back on the radar of young talented people and show them how attractive the sector is.”

    Talking about the reason for GroupM’s association with Zee Melt 2015, Srinivas said, “We wanted to play a role in showcasing what the industry does overall, especially the creative side of the industry, to get the young talent excited about the industry and hopefully to improve the talent quotient of the industry.”

    On Zee’s association with Melt 2015 Zee corporate brand head Roland Landers said, “When Kyoorius pitched the idea, we felt that it blended with what Zee does as a corporate brand.”

    Zee currently boasts of two brand intellectual properties: Zee Leadership series, targeted at CFOs and Zee Mindspace targeted at the CMOs. “When we looked at the Kyoorius event, it looked like a longer version of the Zee Mindspace event,” reasoned Landers.

    The network on day one will look at crowd sourcing of content. “We are a content company and we believe that anybody who has a good content idea can come to us with the idea. We will evaluate that through our screening process and the short-listed ones will be further evaluated by our senior team at the venue. If we like the idea, we can back it as well,” informed Landers.

    Zee has in the past partnered with a number of events from Goafest to AAAI, but this one is too close to its heart. Landers explained, “In events like Goafest, we are merely a presenting sponsor or title sponsor but beyond that we don’t get an opportunity to use our creative talent anywhere. With Melt, we believe it is the partnership that will evolve because we are integrating our own IP into this.”

    Many in the sector feel that the two day festival is in direct competition to the upcoming Goafest. When quizzed about the same, Kejriwal said, “There is a need for not just one or two but four such events.”

    He added, “Goafest is a great event, but then we do need more such events. The industry has 25,000 people, Goafest gets some 2000 to 3000 people, Melt 2015 should get close to 5000 people, but there are so many more people and learning doesn’t stop.”

    Kejriwal also feels that considering such events are targetted more at the younger lot, it is important to have an event of this scale in different parts of the country. “Not everyone can go to Goa and so we decided to keep it in Mumbai,” said Kejriwal while adding that since Delhi is a growing market, Kyoorius will be doing an event sometime next year in Delhi as well. 

    Echoing the same, Srinivas said that the industry can do with a lot more events like Goafest and Melt. “As an industry, we are still very young and there is a long way to go. We don’t see anyone competing with the other,” said Srinivas.
     

    The list of final speakers and the public announcement with regards to the event will be done between 15-20 April.

  • Brands on its way to digital success

    Brands on its way to digital success

    MUMBAI: As digital advertising and online presence gains ground for brands, they are increasingly realising that the digital world differs greatly from traditional media. A one size fits all strategy is unlikely to help brands leverage the full strength of the digital platform.

     

    Additionally, user engagement in real time and dynamic digital environment is a challenge. To add credibility to visibility, marketers need to continue to make full use of online by listening and engaging-not just showcasing.

     

    Discussing the same were panelists namely Dentsu Aegis CEO Ashish Bhasin, GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas, Producers Guild of America CEO, Bunnygraph and VP, new media John Heinsen, Culture Machine CEO Sameer Pitalwalla and Viacom18 Media MTV EVP and business head Aditya Swamy.

     

    The panelist discussed the ingredients required to build a successful online brand presence. The session was moderated by film-maker Rohan Sippy.

     

    According to Srinivas, the world is moving towards programmatic buying and advertising. “Most of the advertising media is getting automated on digital. It has huge implications on the brands,” he said.

     

    Talking about brand’s engagement on the digital world, Bhasin feels that there is nothing different in the digital world earlier than the digital brands. He believes that many brands in today’s time are going wrong. “The principle of any brand is to identify the consumer’s needs and fulfil them,” he said adding that today many brands are getting caught between digital and technology.

     

    He believes that the key to success will be to retain factors like – maintaining the principles of brand building and secondly speed of response accelerated to deliver a lot more basis on the consumer’s needs.

     

    Heinsen opined that brands on digital platforms are the best combination. It gives visibility to brands even more. A successful brand building is the convergence of three things – traditional media, advertising and technology. According to him, integrating these things are needed to build a brand. “As content creators and story-tellers, if we have all these factors only then can you entertain, engage and influence the audiences.”

     

    According to Pitalwalla, brands face two challenges on the digital platforms. One, there are multiple platforms and each of them comes with their own rules and have a lot more content than traditional media. Second, there is a fragmentation of content. He believes that TV commercials have become just one format in a way people are interacting with the brand.

     

    Swamy has a different story to tell. He asserted that if people are not talking about your brand, it is considered that your brand has not made it to the heart and minds of consumers. He feels that brand management has now become a 24×7 and 365 days activity.

     

    As a broadcaster and content creator, Swamy believes that everyone is messing with the format. “People are just playing with all kinds of formats. There is not one fixed formula to it, but people are just experimenting and waiting for it to hit the right chord.”

     

    Swamy added that dialogue conversation with the digital audiences is very important to keep the brand healthy and live. He stated the example of Roadies. “When Roadies was launched, we noticed that there was buzz only for that time of the period till it was on-air. Offline, there were no conversations at all. To keep the brand alive, we launched a digital series, which is accessible throughout the year and now the digital has become a base and TV show just compliments it. That is the power of digital,” he informs.

     

    Bhasin believes that today’s consumers have matured. Earlier, people consumed whatever was shown on television. “Now the consumers are telling us what to do. They are dictating the tonality to which we can pass message through our brand,” he said.

     

    Heinsen believes in the power of conversations. “As a content creator, you should be able to create a content that can spark off conversations. And that’s where social media platforms come into play.”

  • GroupM India wins ‘Country of the Year’ at eMMies

    GroupM India wins ‘Country of the Year’ at eMMies

    MUMBAI: For the second time now, GroupM India has won the ‘Country of the Year’ award at the eMMies 2015, the regional awards for GroupM Asia Pacific. However this time round, India will be sharing the title with GroupM Philippines.

     

    The ‘Country of the Year’ is the grandest award at the eMMies and is given to the country that delivers the best business performance.

     

    Commenting on GroupM India’s showing, GroupM Asia pacific CEO Mark Patterson said, “India continues to set a gold standard in the region through continuous refreshment, reinvigoration, expansion of services and unique influence in the market whilst maintaining a close, collaborative and entrepreneurial spirit throughout GroupM. India does this year on year which make their performance all the more special and worthy of recognition. If there was a country of the decade award it would be India’s.”

     

    GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas added, “India is extremely proud to receive the ‘Country of the Year’ award at the eMMies this year. 2014 has been one of our best years. We are especially proud of our talent who have embraced challenges in a very dynamic market and delivered true value to our clients. However what is most heartening is that we live up to the highest standards of quality among our peers in the larger GroupM family.”

     

  • Mindshare MENA appoints Ravi Rao as chief client officer

    Mindshare MENA appoints Ravi Rao as chief client officer

    MUMBAI: Mindshare has appointed Ravi Rao as Mindshare MENA chief client officer. Rao was earlier Mindshare, South Asia leader. He will be taking over his role from 1 May, 2015 and will be based in the Dubai office.

     

    On his move to Mindshare, MENA, Rao said, “I am excited to take this new role within the Mindshare family. The market has exhibited good growth over the past few years and I look forward to strengthening our position in the MENA region.”

    GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas added, “Ravi helped consolidate Mindshare’s position in the market over the past few years. He has led the transformation efforts of the agency in the recent past. This has helped Mindshare create cutting edge products for its clients, grow its digital business and retain its leadership position. He has made a significant contribution to our network and the industry at large. We are confident that Ravi will continue to play a stellar role in building the Mindshare network and we wish him well in his new role.”

    Mindshare MENA CEO Samir Ayoub said, “We are thrilled to welcome Ravi back to the MENA purple family. Ravi is well respected with a good reputation in our region. With his vast experience, we are confident that Ravi will play a vital role to have more successful stories for Mindshare MENA”.

     

    Rao is also the chairman of the Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and has represented Mindshare and GroupM on several industry platforms.

     

    Rao joined Mindshare, South Asia in 2008 and took over as leader for the market in 2012. Under his guidance, Mindshare remains the largest media and marketing agency in India. Rao was earlier a part of JWT Dubai and the Mindshare MENA team during its inception in 1999. He also worked with OMD in the course of his time in Dubai.

  • GroupM crowned ‘The Dream Company to Work For’ second year in a row

    GroupM crowned ‘The Dream Company to Work For’ second year in a row

    MUMBAI: GroupM India retained the title of ‘The Dream Company to Work for’ in the Media and Entertainment sector at the World HRD Congress Awards 2015. GroupM also was featured in the overall list of ‘Dream Employer of the Year’ in India.

     

    Besides the company commendations, GroupM South Asia chief talent officer Gaurav Hirey won the awards for HR Leadership and The HR Achiever of the Year. The award for Women in Leadership for HR was won by national director, digital talent and employee engagement Apoorva Vig and manager, talent Farzeen Santoke was awarded the title of the Young HR Professional of the Year. The awards were held in Mumbai.

     

    GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas said, “Talent management remains a key focus area for GroupM South Asia, and we are delighted to win the ‘Dream Company To Work For’ award for the second year in a row. We are also extremely proud of the three individual awards won by Gaurav, Apoorva and Farzeen that demonstrate the stellar caliber of our professionals in the company.”

     

    GroupM has aggressively pursued a people transformation agenda, with various capability-building initiatives like the Youth Executive Committee (YCo), the New ME Initiative for digital orientation and Client Delight and an engaging Campus Connect effort, keeping in mind the ever changing media landscape. With digital and Client Delight at the heart of their processes and planning, GroupM and its agencies have pioneered some of the best Talent practices in the South Asia markets.

     

    Hirey said, “We are extremely proud and honoured to receive the awards and recognition. We thank the leadership group at GroupM for their belief in the talent function and creating value not just for our people but also for our clients. We aspire to be not just the best place to work but the place where the best work.”

  • “Emerging categories are looking at digital as it is cost effective to reach the TG”: CVL

    “Emerging categories are looking at digital as it is cost effective to reach the TG”: CVL

    One of the most awaited report, which brings out the trends of advertising spends for the calendar year, was released by media agency GroupM on 2 February. Called ‘This Year, Next Year,’ the report highlights a marginal increase in the AdEx: from 12.5 per cent in 2014 to 12.6 per cent in 2015.

     

    Inaugurating the report, GroupM south Asia CEO CVL Srinivas said, “With achhe din at the centre, we are hoping that things will only go upwards from here.”

     

    The media agency has forecasted the nation’s advertising investment to reach an estimated Rs 48,977 crore in 2015. Digital, as per the report, will show maximum growth with 37 per cent in 2015, which had been growing at an average rate of 35 per cent over the last two years.

     

    With the whole industry looking very positive, Indiantelevision.com’s Seema Singh and Meghna Sharma caught up with Srinivas to get a few insights on the released report and the way forward.

     

    Excerpts:

     

     

    What is the highlight of ‘This Year Next Year’ findings?

     

    We have just released GroupM’s ‘This Year Next Year’ ad spent forecasting and GroupM is forecasting ad spent growth of 12.6 per cent this calendar year, which is January to December as compared to the previous year. We are in the same level as we were last year, which we estimated to grow at 12.5 per cent.

     

     

    General elections helped increase the ad spent last calendar year. Wouldn’t World Cup 2015, Indian Premiere League and Delhi elections help boost AdEx?

     

    To an extent, the World Cup 2015 and the other opportunities offset the fact that we don’t have the general elections this year. Because last year, minus the general elections, the total AdEx grew at over 10 per cent. So on a like-to-like basis, if we remove the general elections, then the AdEx is growing from 10 odd per cent to 12.6 per cent, and this is definitely a growth with the rest of the industry. But if you bring the general elections into play, looks like we are in the same zone.

     

    We see this year, once again, to be strong for e-commerce. While the base is still small, we expect them to increase their ad spent anywhere upwards of 50 per cent. We also see a good year for segments like auto and BFSI. Not only this, FMCG which is a very big contributor to the AdEx, while will be a bit under pressure, is expected to be steady on their ad spent.

     

     

    The report also highlights the growth of digital. How do you see Star India’s Video on Demand (VoD) platform hotStar and MSM’s Sony LIV adding to the medium?

     

    Digital has been growing, in fact by about 35 to 40 odd per cent year on year for the last many years and we forecast the ad spent growth by about 37 per cent for the current year and I think the reasons for that would be:

     

    1) Lot more penetration of smartphones and we are seeing better infrastructure and hopefully we will see better bandwidth in months and years to come, and therefore using smartphones to connect with consumers with lesser wastage is a trend that will only catch on from here.

     

    2) The other contributor to the digital ad spent will be digital video. The fact that as Indians we love consuming video on content and we are one of the highest consumers of video online, plus there are a lot of platforms opening up for video consumption, large broadcasters are launching their own platforms to disseminate content and hence more opportunities for advertisers on digital media.

     

    3) A lot of emerging categories are looking at digital, because it is very cost effective for them to reach out to the target audience.

     

    So all said and done, digital will see a strong growth.

     

    What about broadcasters who are launching new channels?

     

    TV, despite having a high base already and contributing to 44 per cent of the total AdEx, according to our estimate, will continue to grow at healthy double digits. Also this year, we have opportunities like the World Cup and various programming initiatives being taken by channels. We also have some increase in the supply that is available across newer channels. So overall, we see the medium to grow this year as well.

     

    The report shows a drop in OOH. What’s the reason for that?

     

    We have estimated that OOH will grow by four per cent this calendar year. I think these are estimates of what each medium will do. But the bigger story is that there is huge opportunity to grow across media.

     

    We are still a nation, which is under branded and we are still scratching the surface when it comes to smaller towns, geographies, which are regional and we need to get more and more of those brands and clients to advertise. I think, the more we do that, the more we can open up revenue opportunity for media players in this industry.

     

    The sky is the limit for all media – be it radio, OOH or print and hopefully 2016-2017 onwards, one would see the industry moving at higher growth rate when consumer sentiment improves and one actually sees off takes going up on the ground.

     

    You have also stressed on native advertising being the trend to watch out for. How can one implement this?

     

    It is one of the formats of advertising, which is gaining in popularity because of more consumption of content of digital media of smaller screens. So you cannot always use the same content or format of advertising for different screens and different modes of consumption. On smaller screens content is consumed on the go and is quick and easy. The consumption is very different and so there needs to be a different style of advertising.

     

    Native advertising has been born out of this change in consumption habits. It is one form of advertising and will not override all the other forms of advertising because you will still need the traditional storytelling and brand advertising, but it’s definitely a format which is here to stay and provides opportunities to brands to communicate and connect with its consumers.

     

    Last year, GroupM revised its report. Will you do that even this year? If yes, will it be upwards or downwards? Do you think ‘Achhe Din Aa Gaye Hai?’

     

    The way we do the study is that we put out the number at the start of the year basis all the analysis that we do through our intelligence and analytics team. We get a chance to review our numbers in the middle of the year, because by then we can get real data and numbers. So we are able to go back and test our hypothesis and take a call if we have to revise our numbers.

     

    Currently, it is very difficult to say if we will revise our numbers and if so, upwards or downwards, because it will all depend on the performance of the first five-six months. But if at all, we will need to revise the numbers, we will do it in July and not wait for the end of the year.

  • Industry sees higher growth than GroupM’s 12.6 per cent estimate

    Industry sees higher growth than GroupM’s 12.6 per cent estimate

    MUMBAI: “Acche din aa gaye hai,” said GroupM south east Asia CEO CVL Srinivas while unveiling the agency’s ‘This Year, Next Year 2015’ annual report.

     

    As per the report, India’s advertising investment is expected to reach an estimated Rs 48,977 crore in 2015, up 12.6 per cent from last year with digital leading the pack with 37 per cent growth and television following at 16 per cent.

     

    Last year, the growth of 12.5 per cent was attributed to the heavy ad spending due to the general and state elections and industry categories like e-commerce and telecom. Keeping the same positive attitude, the agency feels that 2015 will also move upwards.

     

    Agreeing with it, the industry believes that with the economy going up in a positive manner, the numbers could even go higher.

     

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Parle Products marketing general manager Praveen Kulkarni says, “ARPU (average revenue per user) is going to be better this year and ad spends will increase further.”

     

    According to him, various initiatives taken by the government will bear fruits in the coming months. “2015-2016 will see a positive turnaround in the economy and the overall AdEx can grow up to 15 per cent,” he adds.

     

    Voicing the same sentiments, HDFC Life marketing, product, digital and e-commerce senior executive vice president Sanjay Tripathy, sees an upward trend across all media. “The gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 6.9 per cent in 2013-14, and if it continues to grow, then AdEx is bound to increase as well. I see it going even beyond 12.6 per cent and as for digital, it can go up to 40 per cent,” he states.

     

    However, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi India CEO and managing partner Anil Nair is a little conservative about the numbers. “Digital has various buckets from where the revenue comes in. Apart from media, there are other digital assets like apps as well. I don’t think we can put a number on the growth as I feel the industry will take at least one more year or so to touch a 37 per cent growth number,” he says, as he believes that numbers could increase for categories like retail but one cannot generalise.

     

    “Definitely, the medium is growing faster than the rest but I would still peg it a little lower,” Nair adds.

     

    As for the television, with new channels being launched by networks as well as investment in the digital platform and the ICC World Cup followed by the Indian Premiere League (IPL), the medium is moving forward.

     

    Stating the example of recently announced yet-to-launch &TV, ZEEL chief sales officer Ashish Sehgal believes that with new channels comes added inventory. “World Cup and IPL will obviously help the channels as well as digital mediums. And as and when Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) releases its data, the advertising spend on television will see an upward trend as well,” he says.

     

    However, Sehgal is a little cautious as well and believes that the numbers will be more close to reality when the next financial year begins in April.

     

    The out-of-home (OOH) sector will see a drop this year as the agency estimates it to grow only by four per cent. Milestone Brandcom (part of Dentsu Aegis Group) MD and CEO Nabendu Bhattacharyya adds, “I guess GroupM has based the report on last year’s general elections but I believe that the sector will continue to grow by 10 per cent as the economy is stable. With e-commerce investing heavily on the medium and support of real estate and jewellery brand as well as infrastructure growing across cities and towns in the country, the medium has nothing to fear.”