Ad spends to grow upwards of 20% in regional markets this festive season: Mahesh Shetty

With yet another robust festive season expected this year, brands are actively searching for ways to make the most of this profitable period by aligning themselves with significant and captivating entertainment opportunities.

Traditionally, the festive season has been a goldmine for both television networks and advertisers. This is due to increased consumer spending and larger advertising budgets. However, it is important to note that brands are currently experiencing a noticeable shift in consumer attitudes, along with a significant increase in demand. The festive season serves as a potent catalyst, fostering family gatherings, quality time, and joyful celebrations. Recognising this changing trend, television channels have carefully curated a variety of compelling entertainment programs intended to capture the audience’s imagination during this festive period.

As a result, brands are reinvigorating their marketing strategies, with a strong focus on leveraging the potential of the upcoming festive season. Their strategic priority revolves around entertainment offerings and prominent sporting events to boost visibility and strengthen connections with their target audience.

In conversation with Adgully, Mahesh Shetty, Head – Network Sales, Viacom18, speaks at length about the key factors driving the ad spends during this festive season, how regional markets are becoming a focus area for brands, and much more…

What are the key factors that you believe will drive advertising spends during the festive season in 2023, and how do they compare to previous years?

The festive season in India is a time of joy and celebration, with many popular holidays and events attracting both consumers and advertisers. Ganesh Chaturthi festival marks the beginning of this period, and the country is ready for a feast of entertainment and excitement. Consumer sentiment is extremely positive and this festival is expected to witness a big surge in consumer spending. Brands across categories will go the distance to grab a share of the consumer spends by upping their spends on advertising during this season.

We are expecting strong double-digit growth in ad spends compared to last year. Last year, ad spends in the second half of year were a bit muted due to inflationary pressures and funding squeeze witnessed by the start-up ecosystem. This year, we foresee a significant growth, driven by big ticket entertainment tentpole properties like ‘Bigg Boss’ and sporting properties like ICC World Cup, India-Australia series and ISL.

Could you elaborate on how Viacom18 leverages data and analytics to provide advertisers with more precise audience targeting? What advantages does this approach offer in the competitive advertising landscape?

At Viacom18, like many modern media companies, data and analytics are core to the solutions we provide advertisers. From targeted media plans leveraging television viewership data to brand lift studies to quantify impact of investments made of large properties. In addition to this, there are also customized brand solutions provided by us to brand partners to amplify brand communication. This approach helps us take the conversation beyond regular FCT buys to providing solutions to brands and build stronger and longer partnerships with brands.

In recent years, have you observed any specific trends regarding the emergence of new brands or categories seeking to advertise during the festive season? How do you see this evolving in 2023?

Festive season ad spends for the 4-5 years had witnessed a strong participation of new age brands and categories like edtech, D2C consumer brands, fintech, Crypto, online gaming, etc. However, starting last year, owing to a sluggish funding environment and focus on profitability, most start-up brands have tightened their ad budgets. This festive season will be dominated by core categories like FMCG, Consumer durables, mobile handsets, Auto, Paints, E-commerce and Travel.

Regional markets are becoming increasingly important for advertisers. Could you share insights into how Viacom18 is capitalising on this trend, and how ad spends on television are distributed between regional and national markets during the festive season?

Regional markets are indeed becoming more important for advertisers, as they offer a large and diverse audience base, as well as opportunities to create more localised and relevant content. Viacom18 is one of the leading players in the regional entertainment space, with channels in eight languages, covering genres such as general entertainment, movies, music, and kids. While TV ad growth in the HSM markets was muted, regional channels witnessed healthy revenue growth last year. Regional markets get a double boost during the festive, not only do they witness heightened activity by the national players, the local advertisers also join the party with their festive campaigns. Local retail chains, Jewelry, FMCG brands, Real estate, etc., become active during festive giving a strong boost to ad spends, they invest not only on regular FCT, but invest a significant part of their ad budgets on tentpole properties like ‘Bigg Boss Kannada’. This year, ad spends are expected to grow in regional markets upwards of 20%.

Personalisation and interactivity in advertising are becoming increasingly important. How is Viacom18 integrating these elements into its festive season campaigns to create more engaging experiences for viewers and advertisers?

Solutioning for brands is core to Viacom18’s sales approach, and personalisation and interactivity are important pegs of solutioning for brands. ‘Bigg Boss’ is the biggest entertainment property across TV and OTT platforms. It’s a property which thrives on engagement and interactivity, not only viewers engage with the content on TV and JioCinema, but continue the engagement across all social media platforms. This festive season, too, will witness an even more exciting season of ‘Bigg Boss’ (in Hindi and Kannada) with enhanced engagement, interactivity, and entertainment. Even for brand partners, in addition to the spots on the show, the core benefit that brands get is the seamless integration and engagement in the show which gets amplified across TV, OTT and social platforms.