Festive period fails to bring cheer to news genre, ad volumes dip 2%

The festive season of 2021 has seen brands and consumers in a bullish and buoyant mood as they shake off the pandemic lows. E-commerce as well as retail sales saw a significant growth. Brands’ ad spends reached almost pre-COVID-19 levels, getting a further boost due to back-to-back major cricket tournaments – IPL 2021 second leg and the ICC T20 World Cup.

Not surprisingly, Sports genre garnered a lion’s share of the festive season ad spends as cricket coincided with the festive period.

On the other hand, there was not much festive cheer seen by the News genre, which saw a decline of 2% in advertising during festive period of 2021 over the same period of 2020, as per TAM AdEx’s analysis of advertising in the News genre during the festive period this year (September-November 2021).

Hindi News Channels fared better as ad volumes grew by 1% during the festive period of 2021. On the other hand, English News Channels witnessed a bigger drop compare to Hindi and other regional language news channels. English News Channels dropped by 8% during the festive period of 2021 over the same period of 2020.

Among the Top 5 categories, Retail Outlets-Jewellers dominated the list during the festive period of 2021, followed by Cars (Cars category had topped the list during the festive period of 2020). Paints, Two-wheelers and Spices completed the Top 5 categories this year. Given the greater stress on hygiene and personal case amid the pandemic in 2020, Toilet Soaps was placed second among the Top 5 categories after Cars. Placed in the third spot was Retail Outlets-Jewellers, followed by Tooth Pastes and Two-wheelers in 2020.

Total 3 categories were common among Top 5 list of festive period of both the years – 2020 and 2021 – which were Retail Outlets-Jewellers, Cars and Two-wheelers.

Four out of the Top 5 Advertisers were common during festive period of 2020 and 2021 – Reckitt Benckiser (India), Hindustan Unilever, Godrej Consumer Products and GCMMF (Amul). In 2021, Amazon Online India is the new entrant in the Top 5 Advertisers’ list.

Reckitt and HUL maintained their top ranking during festive periods of 2021 and 2020.

The Top 5 Advertisers accounted for 13% of the ad volume share of the News genre in September- November 10, 2021, compared to 16% share in the same period from the previous year.