‘TOI, Dainik Jagran, Inshorts, AajTak gain traction for Budget content’

Kantar IMRB and Mobile Marketing Association (MMA India) have come out with a study on the impact of Budget 2017 on mobile platforms. Kantar IMRB’s Mobi Track smartphone usage panel was used to analyse consumption of budget related content in the weeks leading up to and during the Budget 2017 presentation. 

Coming in the wake of demonetisation, the 2017 Budget was an eagerly anticipated event. As a result, News platforms saw a surge in traction, driven in large part by the Budget related narratives. A steady diet of Budget forecasts contributed to an increase in overall time spent in the days leading up to the Budget presentation. This was followed by a massive spike in engagement on February 1, the day of the Budget announcement. 

A second spike in traction was witnessed over the weekend following the Budget, as readers caught up on in-depth analyses and the long term implications of the Budget announcements. News aggregators drew the lion’s share of engagement among smartphone users – the top two aggregators accounted for almost 60 per cent of total time spent on news related content. The Times of India was the most popular of the standalone platforms with twice the traction of its nearest competitor Zee News. Platforms like DainikJagran, Inshorts, and AajTak saw the highest gains in traffic during this time. 

“Looking at the data from Kantar IMRB’s Mobi Trak smartphone usage panel – the surge in Budget-related news consumption confirms people’s attention and interest in the event. Engagement levels were expectedly highest among the digital generation, that is, 20-24 year olds – they accounted for the highest Reach and Time Spent across all demographics. The desire for multiple points of view was evident in the strong preference for news aggregators, a stark contrast to the behaviour of offline readers, who tend to limit their reading to a handful of print publications,” observed Hemant Mehta, Managing Director, Media | Digital & Chief Strategy Officer, Kantar IMRB. 

“News consumption is undergoing two fundamental shifts across the globe, including India. One is the rise in news audiences accessing news via their mobile devices, the other is the increase in people who read or watch news through social platforms. Mobile will continue to grow by leaps and bounds as one of the primary mediums that Indians will access ‘News’, and the multiple spikes during 2017 Budget showcases how fast Indians have adopted reading news not just in English but also in multiple languages (15+). It is important to note the second spike post the Budget day – the time spend is actually higher during the weekend and indicates that apart from short news, Indians also reached out to various mobile news sources for longer in-depth analysis post the Budget day,” remarked Preeti Desai, Country Manager India, MMA. 

She further said, “With rapid changes in the mobile landscape, it is important to keep a continuous pulse on the way consumers interact and these passive probes and insights on mobile usage in India by MMA and Kantar IMRB are of critical importance to the modern day marketers as they acknowledge Mobile as the third largest advertising medium in India, after TV and Print. Mobile ad spends, estimated to be Rs 4,200 crore in 2016, are expected to grow to Rs 10,000 crore in 2018 [Source: Mobile Ecosystem and Ad-Sizing Report India 2016].