At the recent 'VIBES 3.0-The Everywhere Content' conference hosted by Elara Capital, the panelist delved into emerging trends across media in advertising Digital is likely to witness a disproportionate growth of overall 150% of the base year, over the next five years and even in other mediums, revenge consumption i.e. huge pent-up will be seen to some extent assuming the vaccine is administered, projected for FY 25, in a session- Advertising- Emerging Trends Across Media - a conference VIBES 3.0 hosted by Elara Capital. The panel was moderated by Shripad Kulkarni, Media Marketing Consultant, Former Carat Media CEO; Vivek Bhargava, CEO, DAN Performance Group (Dentsu Aegis Network); Abraham Thomas, CEO, Reliance Broadcast Network Limited (BigFM); Dr. Bhaskar Das, Group President, Republic TV; Pradeep Dwivedi, CEO, Eros International, and Shaun Nanjappa Chendira, Head of Sales, Discovery networks. The panel projected, “the industry will be Rs 1,200-1,400 billion by FY25 whereby digital pie being 35-40% growth in FY21, and continued growth for the next 4-5 years will clock in Rs 700 billion, next to the TV, radio in excess of Rs 32 billion and other mediums growing in the mid-single digits. With linear progression, digital will be much higher than other mediums, except TV.”

During the COVID-19 lockdown, TV had become an essential service for every household, witnessing record viewership for all channels; however, on the other hand, the advertising spend took a hit. “Revenue has dropped across verticals except for digital by 60% average, but 40% was sticky and consistent, largely backed by FMCG firms. People had been stocking up all types of necessities; hence, ad verticals like personal hygiene, home appliances, eCommerce, hand sanitizers, tech companies, and online education & gaming saw aggressive spending. On the other side, the travel & tourism space saw a sharp cut, due to the lockdown prevailing even post the unlock. Hospitality remains under pressure, due to lack of consumer confidence,” discussed the panelists. Within the FMCG basket, Amul and Dabur saw 100% growth in ad spend as some FMCG firms came to advertise on the news genre, which was not the case earlier due to preference for general entertainment channels (GEC) and viewership patterns. Dabur was the first FMCG advertiser for Republic TV and saw a great response, which led to a 3x increase in ad spend toward the news genre. The print industry witnessed the largest negative impact during this period. However, the auto and healthcare verticals have come back strongly, with new launches for auto, personal hygiene, and sanitizer products on print media. “COVID-19 had accelerated the decline for print although pre-COVID as well it was declining gradually. The print should be 60-70% of pre-COVID levels currently,” mention the panelists. They also predicted that Digital will trigger new opportunities. Top 500 advertisers control 90%, but other millions of advertisers also have moved to digital. SMEs do their own digital advertising, but their adoption is much slower. However, gradually SME’s have been shifting which was a trend overseas a few years back. The pandemic has forced a change in traditional mediums. For radio, it has re-imagined its purpose where 25-30% growth is from listenership. It has moved from just songs to talk shows, podcasts, and audiobooks. “The opportunity lies in the monetization of this content, which was earlier lethargic. Audio will come up strongly with 25-30% growth. With syndication of content across platforms, radio networks will benefit from non-radio scaling up.” Another key takeaway from the session was that the value of a revenue-paying subscriber is going to increase significantly. Earlier, with 30-40 OTT platforms and several TV networks, content demand was high. But currently, the audience has become quality content-specific and willing to spend on marquee shows and content. Anchor properties like Amazon Prime and Netflix allow entry via marquee shows and then after that offer a variety of shows and genres. Also, the digital ad pie will continue to be dominated by Instagram and Facebook as it is a consumer-preferred platform and consequently social media will continue to own that pie. Video has a strong reach and might soon catch up to TV levels for brand-building. Digital has huge potential for luxury items. Digital has become a part of lives; hence, OTT firms and new platforms like Tiktok can compete with Google and Facebook.