Advertisers bet big on news in run-up to May 16

Heavy ad spend, running into several thousand crore for election season, coincides with IPL 7 tournament

In the run-up to the announcement of the Lok Sabha election results on May 16, many are banking on a record number of eyeballs. Anticipating the opportunity, industry has gone all out to book advertisements across television news channels, at rates three to 10 times standard ones for May 16. Some have opted for extended packages to ensure visibility in the midst of political discussions and interviews in the run-up to the exit polls and, subsequently, the day of the results.

As an analyst says, companies across categories — automobiles, consumer durables, e-commerce, industrial goods, paints and surrogate liquor segments — have put in big bucks on news about who makes it and who doesn’t, something that’ll be watched by millions.

Advertisers choose their activity around elections and across channels, translating into spends of Rs 50 lakh-Rs 30 crore each. Anita Nayyar, chief executive of Havas Media, told Business Standard prime time rates on national news channels had risen from Rs 10,000-15,000/10 seconds to about Rs 1 lakh/10 seconds for May 16, as well as a few important polling days, a rise of up to 10 times. She added during elections, advertisers typically targeted the male audience.

The heavy ad spend, running into thousands of crore for the election season, coincides with the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament, a mega event for the Indian audience, as well as advertisers. However, as there are no IPL matches scheduled for May 16 and 17, viewership for the election results is unlikely to see worthy competition.

Advertisers have shown keen interest in the elections, with most taking four-eight week sponsorship deals, says Prashanth Kumar, managing partner South Asia (central trading group) at GroupM, a leading advertising media company. “For sponsors, 10-15 per cent of their campaign funds have been parked for the results day.” This is forcing TV players to change strategies and maximise billings, Kumar says. That is, some of the channels are reducing inventory to give editorial more space and, therefore, charge a premium. Some were coming out with a week’s (preceding May 16) package with special rates, while fixing exclusive rates for the results day, the GroupM executive said.

Harish Shriyan, chief operating officer at Omnicom Media Group, says, "For companies, it is a planned activity; May 16 is part of the election advertising package." While ad rates are estimated at more than Rs 1 lakh/10 seconds during the polls, many companies are increasing the spots for May 16 at a higher premium, Shriyan says. "This is about the future of the country for the next five years," he adds.

For IPL finals, ad rates peak to an estimated Rs 15 lakh/10 seconds.

While a direct comparison of rates with IPL might be misleading, May 16 had captured the interests of advertisers like any other premium property on TV, said GroupM's Kumar.

E-commerce company Snapdeal, which is among the advertisers to have booked "significantly" in the run-up to the results day and the period after that, is spending 20 per cent of its total campaign budget on TV news channels; the rest is spread across other platforms, including digital, according to Sandeep Komaravelly, the company's marketing head.

Analysts say there is a lot of interest on social media. However, the segments accounting for the bulk of brand display will be TV and print, say media buyers.

For May 16 and 17, some newspapers have decided to restrict the front-page ad size to the least possible. They had indicated selling it to a single advertiser across the country to make the front page look exactly the same across editions, said Kumar.