With the South being a key market for brands, the collaboration between four major South news media publishers gives brands a credible & high reach advertising platform to connect with consumers Four leading news media publishers from the South – Dinamalar, Eenadu, ManoramaOnline and Prajavani – recently came together to form the South Premium Publishers (SPP), India’s first ‘South languages’ digital advertising package to serve the digital advertisers collectively. The proposition - advertisers can advertise on the digital assets of these publications and reach out to their target audience at one go across the South. The South Premium Publishers (SPP) digital advertising package is said to offer a reach of 37 million unique visitors, with 715 million-page views and an average time spent of 3.36 to 8.09 minutes. In addition, the SPP digital advertising package is also said to deliver 3 billion ad impressions per month.  (Source: GA report, Combined Monthly Average, April 2020 – September 2020).

Looking back, an earlier initiative was OneIndia - one of the most prominent combined space selling platform for display ads on a national level – which came to the fore when three major media houses HT Media, the Anand Bazaar Patrika Group and The Hindu came together to combine the inventory for six newspapers. On his part, Kishan Kumar MS, Chief Growth Officer, Wavemaker, says that SPP is a critical piece in the transformation journey of the media landscape. He says, “This isn't the first time media consolidation has happened, won't be the last time either. The print publishing and advertising landscape is fast changing, we all know that most legacy print companies are transforming, and I see this as another critical piece in the transformation journey.” Adds Sagar Patil, Director-Planning, Carat India, “This is a great opportunity for brands to leverage South market in one go. Over 90% of India’s new internet users are consuming content in local languages and this opportunity will help to reach them effectively and efficiently. The package helps media planners to reduce multiple conversations due to fragmentation, and as a result will help to buy inventory seamlessly and easier to monitor performance. This also provides scope for advertisers with South as focus markets to innovate and invest monies efficiently with a one-stop solution.” If one were to look at the overall advertising expenditure (AdEx), South India accounts for roughly 1/3^rd or 30% of the AdEx with television garnering the highest chunk followed by Print and Digital, making South a very important market for brands. “South is a very important market for most brands. SPP initiative gives us a credible, high reach, targeted digital opportunity to connect with the consumers, which is always a welcome for marketers and advertisers,” says Joshi. For Kishan Kumar, it’s the legacy of the media companies that will attract brands. He says, “What is good about SPP is the fact that these are all credible media houses with a huge legacy coming together to create an authentic and scalable advertising platform. This makes even more sense where increasingly more brands want to win regional battles, especially in the South where purchasing power is high. Hence, as communication planners, this is a welcome move. Finally, if the platform succeeds in helping brands and companies grow, I've no doubt that they will surely benefit.” On a final note, commenting on the pricing Patil says, “This opportunity will help to drive better digital rates and precise dispersion of budgets to ensure optimal visibility across Southern markets. The scope of negotiation is higher with the consolidation of the budget in one single package, which was not possible earlier.”