How is the advertisers' media mix going to play out this festive season

After predicting double-digit growth in the Indian adex, coming from the festive season, professionals from the media agency landscape dwelled upon the medium-wise interest build-up and united in claiming that while the ad budget of various brands continues to be heavy on TV and Digital, traditional mediums such as OOH, Radio and Cinema have also been witnessing significant interest growth.

Niti Kumar

Niti Kumar, Chief Operating Officer, Starcom, told BestMediaInfo.com that the media agency is already in discussions with their clients to leverage data-driven platforms, ROI-led digital as well as large-scale launch platforms on TV and OOH as these are some of the clutter-breaking options available to marketers in the current times.

This is her opinion because, usually, festive advertising is about riding the consumer sentiment toward increased spending in the period and being able to do the same in a clutter-breaking and visible manner.

“We are seeing equally successful digital-only/CTV campaigns and traditional media-led campaigns. OOH and radio have definitely picked up as people are now out and about,” she said.

Aditi Mishra

As per Aditi Mishra, Chief Executive Officer, Lodestar UM, traditional TV and CTV are both witnessing a spike in interest from advertisers, with the former becoming an enticing proposition owing to the interesting entertainment lineup and sports content and the latter providing affluent targeting which appeals to advertisers from an audience segmentation perspective.

“Many brands are keen to explore a combination to enhance their overall reach among targeted audiences,” she said.

In her views, TV stays strong, as evidenced by the success of IPL 2023 with over 500 million reach, but that being said multiscreen consumption will continue to grow. Additionally, CTV and HD will become pivotal channels to address premium metro audiences.

“Digital platform consumption on mobile with its high reach is a large opportunity; however, high attention efficient scaling remains a bottleneck. That being said, the last mile of retail and driving experiences is important for a market-storming strategy, especially in the festive context which is why Radio is also gaining strength as a retail medium for last-mile connections, with short but intense bursts of activity and Cinema has experienced renewed interest from brands, used for both long-term equity building and short-term promotion of launches, such as mobile phones and automobiles,” she pointed out.

Srinivas Rao

As per Srinivas Rao, Chief Investment Officer, Wavemaker, both TV and digital are seeing similar interests from advertisers. While TV is majorly becoming a value proposition from the brand-building perspective, it is digital that is being used from the perspective of performance and call-to-action.

Striking a similar tone as Starcom’s Kumar, Mishra also emphasised that the other emerging trend in the current day and age is driving greater brand memorability through content-driven investments, particularly on bigger opportunities like sports and reality shows, which is why the strategic focus revolves around optimising reach through data-backed approaches.

Moreover, some of the prominent categories that are also venturing into the domain of AI-led technologies and solutions, in her opinion are of youth-focused brands, along with luxury and fashion segments that are drawing inspiration from innovative practices in other markets.

“This landscape, while still in its nascent stage, holds significant potential. It's an evolving space to keep an eye on, as substantial experimentation and learning processes are currently underway,” she said.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com