2022- A fast growth year!
By Varghese Chandy – Vice President – Marketing & Advertising Sales, Malayala Manorama
Along with most sectors of the economy, 2022 is a year where our focus will be on strong growth and recovering to the 2019 revenue levels first and further grow from there. A positive for us is even during the peak of covid infections, disruption to print circulation in Kerala was minimal. The declaration of newspapers as an essential service by the government of Kerala went a long way in ensuring that our operations and supply chains were not interrupted.
Print continues to play a pivotal role in Kerala in the dissemination of information. Along with being the most credible medium, print has the highest reach among all mediums in Kerala. From a media planning perspective, Kerala needs to be looked at differently as a strong print market. In fact while print forms 16% of the national adex, in Kerala – print’s share of the advertising pie is more than 50%.
Kerala is the second largest market for passenger cars in India. While the sector is facing some headwinds due to raw material and component shortages, we are confident that the sector will bounce back stronger since there is a considerable amount of unfulfilled consumer demand.
Retail has always been a strong category in Kerala with a growing number of large format chains. Retail has shown strong signs of recovery since Onam. Along with retail, cinema is a category which is recovering well. We will continue to support these categories as best as possible.
Cinema is another category that is recovering fast. One good thing that happened to the Mollywood during covid is that OTT platforms have become a preferred medium and a lot of movies are releasing for the first time on OTT. There are many blockbuster releases that have been released. The hybrid model will continue. For films News Paper jackets create immediate impact and response.
E Commerce also has grown substantially in Kerala. Some of the metros in Kerala are figuring in the top list of Ecommerce Companies. This will continue to grow.
Pandemic has taught us to manage our resources better, Sales calls and meetings can be done very effectively on digital platforms etc. The pandemic has also taught us to leave no stone unturned and the importance of creating new business opportunities. The Malayala Manorama group, with our various media channels, reaches close to 90% of Kerala. Perhaps no other media group can provide such a comprehensive reach in a state in India. In 2022, we intend to leverage this reach further through Junction K – the integrated media platform from Malayala Manorama.
We are looking forward to 2022 with a positive frame of mind and we are hoping that our advertisers will see Kerala differently and partner with us to achieve their objectives in Kerala.
