As part of its This Year Next Year (TYNY) Adex 2023 report, GroupM India stated that OTT content, retail media and localisation of sports will dominate the advertising and media industry in 2023. The WPP-owned media agency predicts Rs 20,000 crores of incremental ad spends in 2023 compared to 2022. This highlights the continued growth and potential of the Indian advertising industry and the opportunities it presents for advertisers. The report highlights a 15.5 percent increase in ad spends in India, reaching Rs 1,46,450 crore in 2023. India moves up to the 8th position globally in ad spends and continues to be the fastest-growing market in the top 10 markets worldwide.
Attention planning
With the acceleration of digital media and shifting experiences of consumers, it’s important to understand the impact of attentiveness of the consumer as he engages with media/media assets. The way forward is an “attention response curve”, which allows for new planning and pricing discussions. New measures like quality cost per thousand [qCPM] are beginning to be explored and traded.
Engaging OTT content to create ad opportunities
Brands are looking at leveraging platforms like Netflix and Prime Video across their portfolio to create campaigns using multiple shows, movie libraries and even popular music from some shows. Today, Indians are also embracing content from multiple geographies and languages. The myth that’s getting broken is the belief that typically Indians don’t pay for content and experiences. As mentioned above, we see that Indians actually do pay and they are willing to pay a premium for some curated experiences. From an advertiser perspective, these are highly engaged, high-spending audiences, making popular events (such as Coachella) a perfect platform to capitalize on.
Retail media to grow
Retail media in India is expected to double by 2027. In India, the rise of ad spends on digital retail media will depend on how the retail media networks are able to demonstrate the value by complementing search efforts and not competing with them. The usage of effective hyper-localized and personalized creative at each stage of the funnel of retail media will be critical in realizing its full potential.
Visual search to go mainstream
Visual Search delivers instant relevance to a consumer search. It also allows for the conversion of interest in one specific product (e.g. apparel) to the entire collection – expanding the shopping cart It leads to a huge edge on SEO and how we enhance our marketing ROI. While tagging for search typically needed real people to tag individual products, with Visual search the images are SEO-ready and increase the chances of discoverability. More importantly, marketers can tap into consumers’ state of “What I didn’t know I want” and increase the ARPU.
New dimensions of omnichannel
The dramatic shifts in consumer behaviour during the pandemic saw most agile brands shift to multichannel retail, with e-commerce getting a huge surge. Post the Pandemic, there are further shifts in consumer behaviour. While e-commerce continues to grow, the rate of growth is slowing down. There is re-emergence of physical trade, with high street rentals moving up and consumers opting for the joy of physical shopping, touch and feel, etc. There will be a rise in “Experience centres” across both traditional and new-age brands. The emergence of Metaverse and the growth in AR/VR will power new shopping experiences for consumers. Brands will go beyond multichannel to deliver a true omnichannel experience.
ONDC to democratise commerce
ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) is promising to be the new jewel of the India Stack. What UPI did to payments, ONDC is expected to do to commerce. The momentum gained in 2022 will lead to larger participation from brands and marketplaces to be enabled on the ONDC network. Currently, over 22,000+ sellers are on this open network. With transparency and level playing field for all partners at the core, ONDC will help businesses have more choices, a larger demand spectrum and avoid search bias.
Localisation of sports
There is a strong move towards localisation of sports, encouraging local/ regional players and providing opportunities for the nation to become a playing nation rather than just a “watching” one. While top dollars are being committed at the top of the funnel with IPL and ICC Media Rights, there are apps/platforms democratising sports broadcast space at an amateur level by providing streaming platforms to local sports tournaments and amateur games. It’s essentially developing smaller cohorts of sports enthusiasts who play, watch, support and enjoy their friends and family performing on-field at local, community events. With more Indians becoming fitness conscious and participating in active sports, this medium is expected to develop further, creating and catering to a niche audience and corresponding set of advertisers.