MUMBAI: The last quarter of the year is the best season for everyone. The festive rush not only excites consumers but even brands and advertisers. Television viewership increases and the overall growth in advertising also witnesses an uptake during the festive season. Especially today when regional space is growing by leaps and bounds, broadcasters enjoy traction across channels in terms of viewership.
Holidays and special programming during festivals, such as Dussehra and Diwali, lead to increased viewership on TV, making it the right time for these advertisers to catch the attention of their target audience. Regional affinity also means using local languages for communication, which makes the brand more relevant and more relatable. An industry expert said that it is expected to be a healthy overall growth of around 10-12 per cent during these occasions.
Having looked at the advertiser appetite for the festive season, we now set to explore the viewership on festival days. The first stop is the region wise contribution to festivals celebrated in the Hindi speaking markets across the year. According to the BARC data 2018, Maharashtra, UP / Uttarakhand followed by Guj / D&D / DNH and MPCG and are the biggest contributors to viewership on festival days. Festival viewership is on the rise in 2018 as compared to 2017. For 2018, Holi and Janmashtami viewership in HSM markets have increased by 19 per cent and 29 per cent respectively.
Hindi is the most preferred choice by the audiences that contributes 70 per cent of total viewership. Marathi and Bangla channels stack up next in viewership after Hindi channels.
Bangla channels in the 2017 festive season grew at 3 times the pace of the previous year. Leading national broadcasters have upped their investments in the south zone where content is driven by language. The multi feed channel strategy led by the kids’ genre seems to be working, as the viewership by kids increases due to the schools being shut during festivals. Share of English channels on festivals has dropped over the years.
According to reports, festive seasons contribute 40 per cent of annual sales as companies spend heavily on promotions to make the best use of the biggest shopping opportunity of the year. Starting with Ganesh Chaturthi and Onam, it witnesses a boost during Diwali, followed till Christmas which accounts almost 40 per cent of overall advertising expenditure every year.
Now, what’s interesting is, as per the reports, there’s a sharp dip in ads immediately after the festive season. In 2015, ad spots on TV, in the period post-Diwali, dropped by 13 per cent. In 2016 and 2017 it dropped by 22 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.
With the current festive season ongoing, brands are yet again milking the season well. With discounts, offers and sale season at its peak, the sector is at its best.
