AgVoice | Hoping for better year ahead!

It has been a roller coaster ride for the industry, on the whole. With various sectors cutting down on their advertising budgets, the year was not all that great for the advertisers. I believe various factors like rising gold prices, ever skyrocketing petrol prices and overall high rate of inflation played their respective roles in pulling down the budgets. The markets saw some sparks as short-term, marginal rises, but nothing as compared to the previous years.

One major shift that was observed was the routing of budgets from print & television to digital. With the growing usage of Internet coupled with the explosion of social networking sites, and relatively low cost of advertising, the digital medium seems to be catching pace. Which is what, also made us as a communications agency to divert more talent and resources towards this promising medium of communication.

Talking about various sectors individually, the insurance sector remained stagnant, which resulted in major slash in their advertising budgets. On the other side, the banking sector remained mainly unaffected, maintaining rather healthy performance. The retail was again disappointing. The sale periods for the retail houses has increased, along with a rise in the frequency of it. 'Sale' with temptingly more percentage of discounts every time, has become the sole and sure shot success mantra for them. It's the time when they try to squeeze in the entire year's revenue. With more customers sensing the slow down, especially after facing the consequences in 2009, has made them more cautious. 

The telecom market grew enormously, with a phone in every pocket across the entire income strata, showing a silver line in the dark cloud to the advertisers. The pharmaceutical industry did exceptionally well with a multiplying turnover, which also led to an increase in their communication spends. You can now see a spurt in specialized pharmaceutical and healthcare communications brewing up and past few years. That is in a way a good sign for the industry.

The automobile industry was in the top gear despite the rise in fuel prices. I am everyone will agree, in modern India, owning a vehicle is no more a luxury. That too with the high-end and luxury cars & bikes doing better than ever, a much needed booster for the ad industry.

People's love for their spaces seems to be increasing with each passing day as the interior and home décor brands kept growing during the weak market period.

Coming back to our own media and entertainment sector, of which advertising certainly remains an integral part did well but not so, as compared to the previous years.

So, the larger picture remained a little deserted. But, as well said by someone 'the world dwells on hope' let's see what the year 2013 has in store for us, which otherwise looks good. | Vandana Sethi, Director, Water Brand Consulting