2020 growth story: TV(-11%) and Digital(10%)
Thoughts from the Pitch Madison Advertising Report, 2021
Digital is the only medium that grew in 2020 by 10%.
The Pitch Madison Advertising Report, 2021 which recently unveiled in collaboration with Exchange4Media calls digital the ‘Superstar.’ “Digital is now the No. 2 medium having displaced Print with a share of 31%, up from 23% in 2019.”
But is digital really the superstar?
From 32% it converted into 10% at a time when all other mediums including TV showed negative growth in a year that was marred with economic uncertainty due to the pandemic. So it isn’t unreasonable to be called the superstar.
The report predicts a 26% growth for ADEX in 2021, taking advertising expenditure to Rs. 68,325 crore, almost the same level as 2019.
“After a particularly dull year, commercial activities have returned with a vengeance and the report estimates that India will be the fastest-growing advertising market in the world followed by the UK (14.7%) and Australia (13.2%) going by WARC estimate of growth of global markets,” informs the report.
And as I share the optimism of marketing thought leaders, the second wave of COVID-19 is already knocking on our doors.
Okay back to the report and share of optimism.
The Indian advertising market in last 3 years
The above snapshot is a comprehensive overview of the Indian advertising market. Even though digital grabs the second position from the print it still stands behind the TV.
But check the investments in TV and Digital for the year 2020. The divide is narrowing but one will have to wait and see how the year 2021 behaves.
While most of the traditional mediums like Print, Cinema, and Outdoor were completely deserted by the advertisers. Q4 2020 provided the required energy to survive.
TV recorded a -11% growth in 2020
The report says the first three quarters saw TV de-grow by 31% over 2019, Q4’20 grew by 66% over Q3 2020, recording a high 56% growth over Q4 2019 thanks to IPL and festival period.
TV’s share of ADEX increased to 42% from 37% in 2019.
The above snapshot brings more clarity than the number madness. If you look at the “Share Of ADEX” over the years it hasn’t been exciting. Advertising in India has witnessed muted growth for the last few years and 2020 just made it worse.
Last year’s PMAR report had mentioned the fate of 2020.
According to the report: “Our forecast for Adex 2020 is muted. In arriving at our projected growth figure for the whole year at 10.4% we are guided by the expectation that the economy should bounce back in the second half of 2020 as indicated in the Government's Economic Survey published on January 31, 2020. We, therefore see a subdued H1 for Adex and buoyant H2, especially Q4.”
Just that in reality 2020 became graver.
In terms of categories, the biggest growth in the COVID-19 year has come predictably from the e-commerce category which recorded a 95% growth over 2019. The next biggest growth came from the education sector, on account of online education.
Digital grew by 10% in 2020
The year of COVID-19 has dented Digital ADEX’s record of having grown at 25%+ for the last 10 years and achieved a compound average growth rate of 27% in the last decade.
“Yet it is to the credit of Digital that while all other media have degrown in the year by 11% to 83%, Digital ADEX has grown by 10%,” informs the report.
With this growth, Digital ADEX has reached a value of almost Rs. 17,000 crore and now has a share of 31% of ADEX. It has also climbed one rank in the media listings and displaced Print to become the No. 2 medium, preceded only by the TV.
The above snapshot is self-explanatory.
According to the report, video spends have increased but that is merely 2% from 2019. Display and Social are the next two, followed by Search at the last.
The Dentsu Digital Advertising in India 2021 report has a different story:
Social Media showcased the highest spends (29%, Rs. 4,596 crores). This was followed very closely by online video (28%, Rs. 4,366 crores), and paid search (24%, Rs. 3,725 crores). Spends on display banners stand at 16% (Rs. 2,528 crores).
Video, Social, and Search are going to be the buckets where money will be pushed by marketers. And it goes without saying that Mobile will be the preferred device for consumers and hence for marketers.
In the last 10 days, I have studied almost all the major reports published by the Indian Advertising sector.
DAN’s report stands out for the depth and insights on TV and Digital. So spend some time going through it if you call yourself a marketer.