NEW DELHI: Print is back in focus. Worldwide, marketers seem to be trimming their television dependence by focusing more on print, outdoor media and the internet. The trend is also taking root in India. Be it pricing, geographical flexibility or a better medium for fulfilling consumer education needs, advertisers in India are upping their print media spend faster than television, and sometimes even at the cost of the idiot box.
Recent ad spend data on a host of consumer goods & services reflects this new print bias of advertisers. For the first nine months of 2006, according to Carat Media India’s estimates, print ad growth has piped television in a slew of categories, such as cars, mobile phone services, life insurance, real estate and travel & tourism.
In fact, the resurgence of print advertising has been apparent for over a year now. Last year in 2005, the growth of print ad revenue was as high as 16.1%, 4.7% higher than television’s 11.4%. Interestingly, ad growth for television last year could not even match up the Indian ad industry’s average of 14.1%, according to data from media monitoring firm TAM.
Leading this changeover, globally, are FMCG players. Procter & Gamble, a huge spender on television advertising across all its markets, has seen change coming in from its global headquarters in the US. Recent news reports have talked about P&Gs print-focus media strategy in the US.
Supplemented generously with direct marketing, it aims to correct the FMCG majors over subscription to television. “TV as a share of its (P&G) measured media fell 2.9 points to 69.3% in the first half of 2006, below 70%, for the first time since 2001,” according to a recent report in global ad magazine, AdAge.
Meanwhile, Hindustan Lever (HLL) has hiked its print media exposure, especially for brands like Sunsilk and Surf Excel. “Our spends in radio, print and outdoor are growing much faster compared to television and this trend is more pronounced since 2005-2006 than ever before,” says Rahul Welde, general manager, media, HLL.
Apart from FMCG players, other sectors have witnessed a jump in print ad spends over the last year (January-September). According to market research Adex-TAM, print ad spends by tourism sector has clocked a growth of 49%, while the real estate has increased ad spends by 35% over the last year. Similarly, telecom service companies have contributed a 20% growth in revenue for advertising.
“Media mix decisions for most global companies are very local decisions, because media is different from country to country. For companies, that have focused on television heavily, there are new things they have to attempt, which they’ve never done before,” says Ravi Kiran, CEO, head, StarcomMediaVest. Perhaps, what remains unsaid is that increasingly print will be the medium that advertisers will ride more and more.
Ice-cream brand Haagen-Dazs’ legendary case of using only newspapers to dislodge television-heavy competitors is something that marketers may like emulating once again. While ad spends in India have gone up across media, print seems to be getting more attention due to its flexibility and a better media return-on-investment.
“Print has never been in a better position to compete for television dollars. Look at the facts. The job of a medium is to deliver message to the audience. That cost-value balance has shifted from TV to print, dramatically. This upfront, another 10% TV price has increased. Every TV planner knows the litany. CPM’s up. Ratings down. Clutter endemic,“ says global media guru Erwin Ephron on his website, Ephron On Media.
There also seems to be preference for print for geography-specific advertising. “Historically, one has seen the FMCG category typically using print at the time of launches, but now you can see them coming out with print ads in markets like Lucknow and Kanpur,” says media analyst, Meenakshi Madhvani, managing partner, Spatial Access.
Girish Shah, head of marketing, Kingfisher Airlines who has seen his company’s print ad spends go up by 40% this year agrees: “Print works much better and is more cost-effective when you are targeting a specific geography. We are on an expansion mode and therefore we will always look at new geographies (and therefore more print),” adds Mr Shah.
New market activity creates a need to educate the consumer and this is where print plays a better role, say automobile marketers. According to auto sector experts, there have been over 50 new launches, including special editions and variants in the past two years.
“In such a scenario building your brand on television is all right, but for information on a new launch, you need the print medium. Recently, one also has seen an increase on a month-on-month basis in incentives and promotions from brands,” says Anisha Motwani, VP, General Motors.
