The festive season is getting massive this year, and the year end will be even bigger for brands. Today we have with us Media Planning Manager Karthik from The Media Ant to shed light on the latest trends and patterns that this year end advertising realm has in store. With the festive season already getting started and the year end coming close, reports suggest that 2023 will b3 an explosive year with everything going online.
So how important do you think digital advertising is in this year’s festive end of year season?
Karthick: So, first of all, thank you for inviting me. And let me tell you that I myself am a fan of this podcast that you guys do. So I followed all the previous podcasts and those are really insightful. And I also hope that I’ll be adding and I’m excited to add value to this series of podcasts. Coming to your question, which is, how is digital going to play a role in this festive season? So, of course, as you rightly put, advertising and the festive season go hand in hand because the demand goes high and which also means that there’s a lot of brands who are competing and everyone wants to put their messaging out there. Specific to digital today, there are a lot of studies and data which shows that a consumer’s journey, even if he or she is shopping offline, their journey starts from digital.
I mean the Google search, which is basically your digital ecosystem. So start their journey with search engine first, if not search engine, they definitely go for e-commerce. There are a lot of studies which also show that while inside the retail store, the consumers still want to check the prices and other details online. So digital is definitely the first point of contact in the consumer journey and definitely it also would play multiple roles throughout the journey despite someone doing the shopping online or offline.
The Media Ant: You rightly said Karthik. As per various reports, people are preferring to shop on both online and offline modes. It’s going to be a mix. In fact, there has been an 84% increase in online shopping. Indians are planning to increase their festive budget this year as well. So how the approach will change when it comes to targeting the major three cohorts, the premium consumers, gen, Z’s, and most importantly, non metros, how should brands approach them?
Karthick: It will differ in many ways, there’s a good way to also amalgamate all these things together because today we have so many possibilities, both in terms of technology and also in terms of seamless execution, that there are multiple insights and data collection happening. The concept has become pretty old now, which is the internet of course where all of our devices are beautifully linked together. Your television knows every time you switch onto your Netflix or any OTT platform, it catches from where you left while you were streaming the content while on commute, right?
So your TV, your mobile phone, your tablet, your bluetooth, everything is linked. So there is data collection happening in multiple touch points through which you can very specifically have the option to do targeting based on, customers behavior, their spend patterns. There are certain cohorts one can use, as you mentioned there are certain patterns of Gen Z or millennials or even or baby boomers.
There are a lot of permutation combination, different targeting possibilities. And the best part is, digital allows you to do A/B testing, you can run your campaign, you’ll know what works best for you. So basically you need to have a tailor made strategy for every campaign which digital really accommodates.
The Media Ant: Very well put. Karthik, on how digital is opening new avenues for small and medium businesses. And as we discussed how this year the festive season is going to be massive. So as we know that cricket is no less than a festival in India, last year we witnessed almost 44 million viewership on JioCinema for IPL. With several sporting events like PKL approaching, do you think brands should advertise in sports?
Karthick: Yes, of course. So sports for Indians is a religion and it has surpassed cricket, the craze for homegrown sports is growing. So if you go back 25 years from now, it was only the top brands who would sponsor sporting events or who would have the budget to spend on your broadcast television. However, today with digital, OTT and CTV coming in, there are multiple avenues open for a lot of brands.
So to answer your first question, of course the power to advertise in a sporting event is much more than ever before. Second is the possibilities have increased and this whole ecosystem has democratized for a lot of brands.
So for example, television still remains dominant, you have all your big FMCG players, etc advertising on television. Now you have your MSMEs who are funded startups, etc advertising on digital. We saw how Cred did an amazing campaign during the IPL, a lot of brands like Spinny, Vasy ERP are leveraging sports on digital.
So many brands have used this power of OTT and then you have this ecosystem wherein brands can also advertise on apps like, Cricbuzz, Sportskeeda, etc. These days you also have beyond digital there is offline integration as well. So your mainline publications have a specific slot to advertise on their sports section where they have news specific to sports, you also have radio stations which during your matches have a specific program dedicated where you have the avenue to advertise. So basically, the options have opened up and advertisers of any size and any budget can actually take advantage of it.
The Media Ant: So we can rightly say that how sports advertising is, as we said earlier, is no more big brands exclusive and it’s becoming bigger with more and more brands being able to advertise.
Thank you, Karthik, for being a part of Ant Wants To Know, and it was a pleasure having an insightful discussion with you. Stay tuned with us for more insights on advertising and marketing. Don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and instagram.
