The second half of 2021 is witnessing a resurgence in print advertising with brands across categories returning to the medium in a big way.Industry experts said most of the top categories have witnessed an increase in ad spends in July and the newspapers, which were heavily impacted due to the Covid-19 outbreak last year and the second wave during the second quarter, are already expected to spring back to normalcy sooner than anticipated.“There has been a jump in advertising in print media starting July and I think the festive season will be much better,” said Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands India. “Yes, people are cautious with the expected third wave, but there are enough and more advertisers who believe in the power of print.” Sinha said that he expects print advertising in the second half of 2021 to see at least a 10% increase over the same period last year. Sivakumar Sundaram, chairman of the Executive Committee at BCCL, which also publishes ET, said: “Print advertisement has always been the barometer for the resurgence of the economy. While the first quarter of fiscal 2021-22 has undoubtedly been challenging due to the Covid-19 second wave, the performance of print in July ’21 gives rise to a huge sense of optimism.” 85163508He said the 2021 festive season would “most certainly” witness an increase in consumer spending across categories such as real estate, auto, FMCG, ecommerce, consumer durables, clothing, etc. “The vaccination drive, steady decline in cases and gradual opening of markets, along with strong economic factors like liquidity, the normalcy of monsoons, unemployment rate at a four-month low of 6.95% in July ’21 and pent-up demand will drive the spending,” he said. “India’s best performance in the Olympics has also been a sentiment booster and provided a shot in the arm for advertisers.” As per data from TAM Adex, in July, ad space per publication has already seen a 36% jump over July last year. The data also suggested that July 2021 was better than August and September last year, which had seen a 24% and a 26% increase over July 2020, respectively. The promoter of one of India’s largest newspaper groups is also optimistic on the advertising resurgence. Girish Agarwal, promoter director of the Dainik Bhaskar Group, said the second quarter has been good with almost all categories back to print advertising. “July was near 2019 levels and August looks better. Advertisers are using print in a big way to push sales and getting great results,” Agarwal said. “All categories are doing well and are expected to spend big from now till festive. Large print categories like real estate, automobiles, education, health, BFSI, electronics and appliances have all started and FMCG and lifestyle advertisers are also focusing on print with frequency campaigns.” With the late declaration of class X, XII and JEE results, education has also picked up pace, data shows. Adex data shows multiple courses, cars, hospitals, two-wheelers and real estate were the top five advertising categories in print media in July 2021, amounting to almost 30% of the overall ad space share. According to Sinha, depth in coverage of regions and a much shorter lead time are two big positives for the print sector. Industry executives say advertisers queuing up even before the start of the festive season is also an encouraging sign. “A phenomenon that we are witnessing is that neither customers nor advertisers are waiting for the festive season,” said Agarwal. “Consumption behaviour is focused on the ‘now’. The feeling is that one should effectively utilise this current ‘window of opportunity’ rather than waiting for the future which is difficult to predict or uncertain. Advertisers are not waiting for the festive and stimulating demand through offers and big visibility campaigns.” A senior marketer said that a lot of brands have started advertising heavily on print now because print can create that positive momentum much better than any other medium. “The last one-and-a-half year was all about doom and gloom and now people want to see positivity. Right now, the situation has improved and there is nothing that can create euphoria better than print. The policymakers read the newspaper first thing in the morning and that’s the impact print gets,” he said.Incidentally, Times Response, the sales and solutions team of the Times Group, has planned several innovations to facilitate consumer outreach for marketers to leverage the impact and immediacy of print. “The strong momentum in the print advertisement, evidenced by the print volumes in all the large markets, during July ’21, is expected to sustain throughout the festive period,” added Sivakumar.
from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3ivimZa
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