Maruti Suzuki's adex to grow by 15-20% in FY24; 70% to go to TV and digital

Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Director, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki, during the course of an interaction with BestMediaInfo.com, stated that the automobile player is likely to increase its ad spends in FY24 by 15-20% on a YoY basis.

“At MSIL, we expect to maintain steady spends across product campaigns, including sustenance and media associations, which is why our overall ad spends are likely to increase by 15-20%,” Srivastava said.

In addition, he also emphasised that an expected 10-11% media rate inflation in the next fiscal year will also have a role to play in the ad spends growth of the company.

He also shared that the total ad spends of MSIL in FY23 would be in the range of Rs 800 crore, which includes Rs 200 crore spent on digital medium alone.

Delving further into the nitty gritty, Srivastava also pointed out that because MSIL’s ad spends are historically driven by the company’s marketing calendar - comprising of product campaigns and media associations throughout the year, approximately 40-45% of the ad budgets will be kept aside for perusal in the first half of FY24 and the remaining in the latter half.

Commenting on the medium-wise spending on advertisements in the upcoming fiscal year, Srivastava also stated that because television has been the leading ad-spends medium for MSIL until now, both TV and Digital will continue to combinedly draw almost 70% of the company’s spends in FY24.

“This will be followed by Print which will involve approximately 24% of media spending and the remaining on Cinema, Radio and OOH,” he added.

Furthermore, he also went on to add that because FY24 has some of the big-ticket events like IPL, ICC World Cup and multiple state elections, mediums like TV and digital will have a big role to play.

Upon being questioned, if the company would be spending more in the first quarter of the upcoming fiscal year keeping the IPL in mind, Srivastava stated that MSIL is evaluating various possibilities of leveraging the upcoming cricket season basis their marketing plan for the year and owing to the fact that Maruti Suzuki has been associated with cricket and IPL season after season.

“Given that our base of FY23’s ad spends was high in Q1, big-ticket sports like IPL, and launch campaign for our recently unveiled models may keep the momentum of spends,” he opined.

Additionally, giving a cohesive perspective on the outlook for advertising in FY24, Srivastava stated that while the yearly ad spends of other global automobile players may see a growth of approximately 5-6% in FY24, the overall industry spending on advertisements is likely to grow at a comparatively higher rate of 14-15% when compared to FY23.

Furthermore, he also emphasised that the key drivers of ad spend in India for the upcoming fiscal year would be the overall growth in the Indian economy, increasing disposable income (buoyed by the new tax regime) and the big events which are going to take place.

Upon being questioned as to what is his opinion about the growth of ad spends on mediums like Print, Radio and Outdoor, Srivastava replied that both MSIL and others have been increasing their spends on these mediums as a result of which such mediums have been growing - especially after being badly hit in FY20 and FY21 due to the pandemic.

In his view, this incremental spending on mediums apart from TV and Digital is largely backed by improvement in Print circulations and normalisation of traffic on the roads.

“In the coming year, while we expect ad spends in radio (including digital apps like Spotify etc.) and outdoor to increase, from our perspective Print ad spends in FY24 are likely to be in-line with that of the current fiscal year,” he stated.

Srivastava stated that while advertisers understand that print is useful for both-top and bottom of the marketing funnel, owing to the trust that the medium has in the minds of its readers, there seems to be a shift in the medium of news consumption amongst the growing young population.

“However, it is in the absence of current readership behaviour and circulation numbers that advertisers are also looking forward to much-awaited industry reports which can shed light on such facets in the post-pandemic world, which is why the ad spends growth in the case of print medium is likely to be muted,” he stated.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com