By: Yohan P Chawla
VIVO IPL 2019 or General Elections 2019 – which is the bigger platform for advertisers to engage their brands with consumers? Obviously given the phenomenal reach and viewership the IPL garners across television and Hotstar, is just an academic question. However that is not to take away from the salience of the audience sizes and focussing that news channels offer marketers during a general elections.
Medianews4u connected with Basant Dhawan, CEO – English & Business News, Network18and Avinash Pandey, CEO, ABP News Network to find out how their news networks have benefitted from the world’s biggest general elections, and more.
Excerpts.
What are the kind of brands and categories that are advertising with you for general elections?
Basant Dhawan: FMCG & Food Oils like Fortune Oil, mouth fresheners such as Vimal Pan masala. In Clothing and personal accessories there are brands like Linen Club, Today Footwear, Paragon and Lux Cozi. In the home appliances and personal care category, we have brands like Colgate, KLF Coconut Oil, etc. And Political parties.
Avinash Pandey: At ABP News Network, we are already working with some high value companies across diverse segments. Media advertisers’ ever-growing interest in spending on television ads has made us poised for a substantial growth in revenue generation on the back of FMCG, automobile, consumer goods, paints, steel brands and e-commerce etc.
From your advertisers for elections which are the kind of creatives you are seeing more off… in the advertising you receive –Could you also share a percentage mix? What is the total number of advertisers on your channel/network so far?
Basant Dhawan:Total Election specific clients on our network are less than 150; out of which 10% -15% are Political Ads. Amongpolitical advertisements, we have direct ads from Political parties.
Avinash Pandey:With the onset of the General Elections 2019, advertising across the verticals has seen a great spike. Right now, we have over 30+ brands on board and among them most are adhering to a simple brand thematic campaign to reach out to the masses. However, certain brands like Honda have developed special advertisements around the elections.
How does the advertising on your channel/network during these general elections, 2019 compare with the same of during earlier elections?
Basant Dhawan: Political ads traditionally have a bigger pie in total spends, however when compared to previous State elections – Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Chattisgarh and Tripura- most categories have shown an increased buy of inventory, across categories such as food and beverages, clothing and personal accessories; personal care and laundry etc.
Avinash Pandey: Advertising across our network has witnessed a great spike this year as compared to the General Elections held in 2014. Our advertisers on board constitute a fair mix of categories like FMCG, E commerce, Paints, Steel, Automobiles etc. The real estate sector used to be a key contributor towards advertising revenues earlier but because of the current situation prevailing in the sector it’s a major miss. However, we have been able to successfully increase the overall advertising revenue. From 2014 elections to 2019 elections, our revenue has almost tripled.
In your ad mix across your inventory what is the breakup of election/political ads VS the rest?
Basant Dhawan: Political/Election ads comprise of 8% -10% of overall inventory across our News 18 Network of channels. States like UP, MP, Assam & Odhisa have high composition of political Ads ranging from 12% -14%.
Avinash Pandey: The value that the news genre is adding in the industry is unprecedented and advertisers are grabbing the opportunities to expand their reach by advertising more on news channels. Elections garner high viewership and eyeballs, which helps news channels in gaining lot of demand among advertisers. We already have around 30+ advertisers on board, however the political advertisers contribute to only single digit of our total revenue.
What are the benefits of advertising on news channels during elections for a brand VS advertising on the IPL?
Basant Dhawan: Traditionally, IPL has been a magnet for all advertisers. However, election viewing interest cuts across geographies, caste, class, language, age and gender. Besides it offers clutter free advertising opportunity as there is scope for innovation. If you look at statistics, for an advertiser, it makes more sense to put money in news than in IPL.
News18 Network itself delivers far higher efficiency due to higher reach and lower rate per 10 seconds as compared to IPL. The CPT (cost per thousand) being 80% lower than on an IPL match day. Thus, delivering far more audiences at a much lower cost.
The rate per 10 seconds for an IPL spot is approximately 10 lakhs across the Star Network versus 2.5 Lakhsper 10 seconds for the mega counting day on News18 Network.
Given this, news presents a much better and bigger opportunity for advertisers to create an impact by reaching a larger number of viewers at a lesser cost than sports or entertainment.
Avinash Pandey: Elections have always garnered high viewership, irrespective of the period. In a very short span of time, News genre has seen a considerable surge, owing to heavy consumption of news during General Elections by viewers. With most of the news channels having taken the FTA (Free-to-air) route after the new TRAI Tariff Regulation, the brands stand to gain even more as they will be reaching out to a wider audiences via news channels.
