Brands and advertisers are placing a lot of hope in the holiday season this year after two years of dampened festivities. Special campaigns across media have been created by marketers, which has also given the print industry hope for a resurgence. The industry, which already feels bullish following a strong first quarter overall, anticipates that holiday spending will raise AdEx by at least 15% when compared to the holiday quarter of 2021.
Although an increase in AdEx is almost expected, the industry must decide if the holiday push will enable the print sector to return to pre-COVID standards.
The Malayala Manorama’s VP-Marketing & Advertising Sales, Varghese Chandy is confident that the AdEx will reach pre-COVID levels. All advertisers across India look to Onam to get a feel of what is waiting for the remainder of the festive season, said Chandy, adding that it appears like Onam will be an outstanding one.
Similar comments were also made by DB Corp. Non-Executive Director Girish Agarwal during their Q1 FY23 earnings call. When asked if the industry would rebound by Q3, or the holiday season, Agarwal responded that he could say yes, they are aiming towards it. Revenue improvement and a ticket size increase are the two obstacles. They are making a call in accordance with the possibility that clients will choose for either of them at the negotiating table.
The Indian Newspaper Society’s (INS) president, Mohit Jain, predicts considerable and genuine market growth for the sector. They are lagging behind the AdEx overall; it has not yet recovered to pre-COVID levels. But the path continues, and they must exercise patience, he added, noting that many industries are rebounding, which can only help the entire AdEx and the print industry. The industry did not have a good year in 2020. A revival was seen in the year 2021, but it fell short of expectations. This year, it’s anticipated that holiday attitudes will improve, he said.
The print sector increased 20% in 2021 to reach 77% of pre-pandemic levels, based on the EY FICCI 2022 report. Despite a 32% increase in ad volumes, overall advertising revenues were still 27% lower than they were before COVID. In Hindi and other regional language publications, advertising reached about 78% of pre-COVID-19 levels, whereas it only returned to 63% in English newspapers.
According to Navin Kathuria, EVP-Integrated Media Strategy, DDB Mudra Group, print AdEx could experience a rise of between 15% and 17% in the holiday quarter compared to the holiday quarter of 2021, taking a cue from advertisements throughout Independence Day celebrations. If the Independence Day scenario’s print advertising reaction is any indication, this holiday quarter should perform substantially better than it did in the prior two years.
The top four consumers of print in 2021 continued to be FMCG, education, automobiles, and real estate, as determined by EY FICCI research. 57% of advertising income came from the FMCG, education, automotive, real estate, home improvement, and retail sectors. They collectively spent more than Rs 1 billion on print in 2021. However, their expenditure was still lower than in 2019, with the exception of education.
The CEO of Madison Omega, Dinesh Singh Rathore, stated that the print industry is doing well. Newspapers still come in huge formats and with lots of adverts. There are even occasional days when there are a lot of newspaper advertisements for jackets, an indication that the sector is recovering. They are also getting a lot of support from advertisers, and the fact that they are doing so shows that customers are coming back to print.
Kathuria echoed the idea and added that while traditional holiday categories like e-commerce, fashion and apparel, sweets, snacks, and confectionery will be in print, other classifications like real estate, which started using print in 2022 even outside of the holiday season, are also anticipated to be aggressive.
He listed a number of factors for a positive outlook, including the opening of offices; the return to normalcy of cities and towns; the lifting of restrictions on public gatherings and events; the conduct of sporting events in front of crowds in stadiums and grounds; the success of the inoculation drive, etc.
According to brand consultant Abhimanyu Mishra from Brandfizz, print was always a dominant force in Indian advertising until the pandemic struck. There is, however, a revival taking place, and this is apparent from the way revenues this year have started flowing in. As India celebrated Amrit Mahotsav, one could see the mojo in print again, and it is expected to continue during this much-anticipated holiday season.
