The advertisers have loosened their purse strings and resumed spending on ad campaigns to lure buyers on the back of the relaxation of lockdown across the country.
The spend on advertising has gone up considerably with volumes touching almost 30-40% of the pre-Covid, within days of malls, shopping complexes, and airport openings. Advertising has also seen an uptake apart from mass media like television and print, outdoor advertising has also seen an uptake.
India has been observing lockdown since the last week of March to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. While the govt allowed reopening of retail stores in most places, all shopping malls remain closed.
As a part of state governments’ initiatives to see the pandemic, the malls in various cities were shut weeks before the national shutdown rendering their businesses to almost nil for many for over two months now. Malls, shopping complexes, and restaurants reopened after the Ministry of Home Affairs permitted relaxations of norms allowing businesses to resume operations from June 8.
Advertising has mostly been driven by the fast-moving commodity goods category which comprises of essential commodities like pulses, oil, sugar, rice salt, and others. The movement and sale of essential goods were permitted throughout the lockdown and hence the demand and advertising also continued.
As and when businesses are allowed, more activity in advertising will be entertained and the sector will come back like financial products, services, telecom, and mobile phones as people have not changed their phones in the three months and health-related categories because of the heightened concern will start advertising.
The outbreak of the pandemic has resulted in the economic pressures, political tensions for ad agencies, but most of these episodes are short-lived. Several agencies are working out the ways to go online and hold virtual meetings to deal with this unprecedented crisis. However, there are signals for retrieval as and when the government announced a release in the lockdown across the country.
The advertising space is witnessing considerable growth in digital content consumption, especially on social media, OTT, and gaming and significantly increased TV viewership of 40% which is over pre-Covid period. Advertising of OTT platforms on television also witnessing growth. The growth will stabilize at some point, continues and sustain.
