General elections give news genre another opportunity to resurrect itself: Top advertisers

New Delhi: With many non-news advertisers seeking news-only plans during the upcoming general elections amid the ongoing IPL season, the news genre must take it as an opportunity to resurrect its broken business in the long run, feel India’s top advertisers.

BestMediaInfo.com on Friday reported that many large multinationals across business categories, who were either absent or had a strategic presence on the news genre, are seeking news-only plans from their agencies. 

Explaining the rationale behind returning to the news genre, a media agency head told BestMediaInfo.com that their clients see this two-month-long window of high news viewership as a perfect fit in contrast to the ongoing IPL. 

“They are aware that news is a multi-channel affair the viewership is fragmented, unlike IPL. However, they realise that they can be present across multiple news channels of their choice at 1/10th of the IPL’s cost. At the same time, all the news channels are expected to show more or less similar content with different packaging. This leaves fewer chances for them to go hyper-toxic,” said the media agency head.

When asked if these advertisers would stay with the news genre beyond elections, the top executive representing a large set of television advertisers responded by saying that the onus lies on the news genre.

“Our clients are strategically looking at news genre considering a little safer environment during the general elections. If the genre is capable of maintaining a brand-safe environment beyond elections, a few advertisers can stay depending on the return they get on their investment,” the agency head said.

A large FMCG marketer told BestMediaInfo.com that after COVID-19, the news channels are getting yet another opportunity to get their acts right.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, the share of the news genre touched a historic high. From about 7 per cent, the news genre rose to above 20 per cent. Within no time, they jumped to extremely toxic levels after the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput and the historic high became history. Now, the news genre sits at about four per cent. Except for big events such as general elections, the genre is negligible for us,” the marketer said.

“When the genre had a market share of 7-7.5% about 5-6 years ago, it had about 10% share in TV adex. Today, the news genre’s pie in the adex remains almost the same despite the viewership share going down by 50%. One can argue that news viewers have shifted to digital mediums such as YouTube. But that puts an additional burden on us if we follow those viewers. We had no choice other than to opt out of the genre,” the FMCG marketer explained.

A media observer, an erstwhile CEO of a prominent news network, told BestMediaInfo.com on the condition of anonymity that the news genre is unique in nature.

When asked if the news genre will treat general elections as an opportunity to retain the returning advertisers, the former CEO said, “On one hand, you have the general entertainment channels who take any industry-specific decision together. The best example I may give is their strategy related to DD Freedish. On the other hand, a news channel rarely thinks about the genre as a whole. As an insider, I can say that it is easier said than done.”