While TV ad volumes remained constant in the four South Indian language markets in 2022 over 2021, the estimated ad spend on the medium grew 19 per cent to Rs.12,750 cr or 46 pc of the total of Rs.27,570 cr, according to the fifth edition of Medianews4u.com’s South Side Story report in partnership with TAM Media Research, unveiled in Chennai on 31st May 2023.
Digital outpaces TV
According to the estimates, while digital spends grew 55 pc across India to take the lion’s share of 41 pc of the total spends of Rs.94,650 cr, the corresponding growth in the South was 35 pc, accounting for 31 pc of the South ad pie.
Digital continues to outpace the growth of TV nationally and in the South markets, but growth of digital ad ex is slower in the South than the rest of India.
On digital, over 525 categories advertised on Southern publications with e-commerce, media, entertainment and social media leading the list of over 42,000 advertisers. The report also states that there were over 1,270 exclusive digital advertisers on South publications in 2022.
Against 76,000 brands from over 59,000 advertisers were on TV, radio and in print in 2022 in South markets, the corresponding numbers for digital were over 50,000 brands from 42,000 advertisers.
Top 10 sectors contributed 90 pc of all digital insertions mapped nationally on 2022, with the top three – services, education and computers – accounting for 68 pc.
While over 98,000 brands from over 78,000 advertisers advertised in the print version of publications, only under 37,000 brands from over 30,000 advertisers were present on their digital versions, indicating headroom from within existing advertisers (2021).
Print, radio volume growth outpaces ad ex
Print ad spends in the South were estimated to have grown 14 pc from Rs.4,300 cr to Rs.4,900 cr, contributing 18 pc of the overall ad ex. The ad volume growth in print down South was 20 pc.
Nationally, print spends grew 10 pc to Rs.18,500 cr, against a volume growth of 15 pc. Across India, TV ad spends grew 9 pc to touch Rs.30,800 cr accounting for a third of the total ad ex.
While radio spends were estimated at Rs.840 cr growing 24 pc (on volume growth of 38 pc),cinema ad ex more than doubled from Rs.110 to Rs.230 cr while OOH climbed 23 pc to Rs.350 cr over the previous year in the South markets.
The South saw an overall estimated ad ex growth of 23 pc, behind the national average growth figure of 28 pc, according to the report.
HUL leads TV share
The leading advertiser in South India on TV was Hindustan Unilever at 15 pc share followed by Reckitt Benckiser with 10 pc. The top 10 advertisers on TV were all from FMCG. Maruti Suzuki India was the top advertiser on radio, and Venkateshwara Hatcheries in print.
The most chosen channel genres in South India were GEC and news in each of the Southern States. In South India, festive themed ads improved by 15 pc as against 22 pc nationally.
The report predicts that the estimated ad spends in 2023 across South markets will be Rs. 32,008 cr, driven by digital growing at over 30 pc. Television ad spends are expected to grow at 10 pc keeping it at top slot in the South. Print (9 pc), radio (10 pc), cinema (20 pc) and outdoor (12 pc) are all expected to contribute to the growth.
IPL 2023 on TV and OTT
Until match 63 of the IPL 2023 season, the live Tamil feed of Star Sports saw 55 hours of advertising from 91 brands, Telugu had 46 hrs from 85 brands while Kannada saw 27 hrs of ad volume from 82 brands.
Dream11 was the top advertiser by volume on the Tamil and Kannada feeds while Kamla Pasand was seen the most on the Telugu feed.
Kaleesuwari: From nil to 41 pc share on digital
Presenting the findings of the South Side Story report at launch, Anshu Yardi, Director – Business Development, TAM India, cited the case of Kaleesuwari Refinery that moved from having no advertising on digital in 2019 to placing 41 pc of its frequency on digital, with the universe being TV, print, radio and digital. Correspondingly, its frequency of TV advertising reduced from 98 pc to 57 pc, despite its TV ad volume growing at 2.6x to around 1,00,000 insertions in 2022 from 38,000.
The number of TV channels it advertised on moved up from 58 to 92. From zero in 2019, the number of digital channels used by the edible oils to foods major grew to 1998 in 2022.
In contrast, Yardi explained how for retail player Sathya Agencies the presence on TV grew 4x to 91,000 insertions from 23,000 in 2019, growing the share of TV in its media mix from 24 pc to 74 pc. In converse, the share of digital presence moved down from 73 pc to 12 pc.
In the case of both advertisers, celebrity endorsements were restricted to TV ads.
(Download the full South Side Story 2023 report on Medianews4u.com here)
