At the beginning of this pandemic, when the print stopped producing advertisements and due to the lockdown fresh programming, events etc are stopped. Then the entire focus shifted to news channels and digital platforms. Across various categories, there was a huge fall down in all sectors of business but news channels and digital were the only platforms that continue to attract advertisers.
The last six months have been a blessing for the digital medium. Digital advertising witnessed a 26 percent jump in revenue in 2019, and now it is close to witnessing a 40 to 50 percent jump in revenues in 2020. With this period the behavior of customers change a lot and they adapt the digital life.
Pawan Sarda, Group Head, Digital Marketing & E-commerce at Future Group recently spoke that according to the current situation brands have limited choices also the dependency on digital will be higher and everyone is concentrating on various conversion at this point in time. But from a market point of view, digital will surely move to 40 percent of overall marketing that spends. Focus on digital is surely high this year.
Shradha Agarwal, Co-Founder, of Grapes Digital Pvt. Ltd, mention that, According to a survey, about 51 percent of consumers doing festive shopping this year and they will use online sites and apps as their primary channel for shopping. Now the digital will be 40 percent of the overall ad spend which was the only30 percent in last year. In 2019 the total ad uses during the festive season was approx Rs 2500 crore. This representation looks very positive for digital agencies. In Grapes, they have seen a huge jump, where all brands have gone really active with their campaigns moving right along with the festive season.
During this pandemic, digital suffered a minor decrease of 7 percent, even as all other mediums suffered a drop of 40-55 percent. It is the only medium to rise by 16 percent in Q1 2020 when all others registered a double-reduction.
Speaking about the digital opportunity of this festive season, Prajakta Deshpande, Sr Manager, Digital Marketing, Raymond Ltd mentions that the spending of digital will be higher than in previous years. About 25 percent is more than his estimation. But Overall, at an industry level, digital advertising will see a notable increase because advertisers who all relied on digital platforms.
