GroupM sees print mags ramping up digital spends as ads shrink

With magazines' contribution to the total ad pie falling steeply, leading media agency GroupM expects publishers to ramp up investments in the digital space.
While the advertising revenue of the magazine segment has been stagnating between 2010 and 2013, it began to decline since 2014, when it fell by 5 per cent.
The degrowth gathered speed next year when the decline nearly trebled to (-)13.4 per cent and is projected to slip further to (-)15 per cent in 2016, according to GroupM's AdEx projection.
"We will see a lot of mag publishers investing in digital platform and offerings. I think that will be a good development because many of them have very strong brands and very loyal readership," GroupM South Asia Chief Executive C V L Srinivas told PTI.

Magazines fell out of advertisers' favour even as companies massively increased their digital spends, which as a media category grew the fastest in 2015 at 45.5 per cent and is expected to clip at even higher speed at 47.5 per cent this year, according to GroupM.
While the total ad industry grew by 14.2 per cent in 2015 to Rs 49,758 crore, the share of the magazines genre was the lowest at 1.4 per cent or Rs 675 crore. GroupM predicts this figure to fall to 1 per cent this year at Rs 575 crore.

In contrast, digital's share was 9.9 per cent in 2015 and is expected to increase to 12.7 per cent at Rs 7,300 crore.

"If they can translate all of that strong offering on digital, it will really work for the magazine publishers. We see this transformation happening within the next two-three years and we see a lot of mags actually redefining and repositioning themselves as digital offerings," Srinivas added.
Stating that this is not abnormal, he said the domestic market is reflecting global trends, where digital has been growing mostly at the expense of the print media.
TV continues to do well, he said, adding that last year it grew close to 19 per cent and this year the figure will be close to 18 per cent.

"We believe digital and TV help each other grow, because there is a lot of second screen viewership or multi-screen viewership that happens today," he said.
Broadcasters and content creators are ensuring that they have offerings across different platforms and ensure that they keep their viewership intact, he said.
"I think to that extent the broadcast sector has been pretty good to capitalise on the digital wave and grow its base," he said.
Despite controversies surrounding the Indian Premier League, Srinivas expects advertisers to keep investing in the event.
However, he was quick to add that with non-cricketing
leagues coming up and slowly gaining popularity, advertisers will look at the space too, but cricket will still continue to command a premium rate.

"We are moving from a one-sport nation to a multi-sport nation and we have a lot of new leagues coming up. Some of them are slowly establishing themselves as alternate vehicles for advertisers and brands.
"But till such time that 2-3 get established and are able to garner a larger share of the ad pie, I think at least in the next one or two years, the popular events of cricket will continue to attract the premium," Srinivas said.
Asked if advertisers would look at geo-targetting as the new leagues have following in specific regions, he said, "The league owners and stakeholders are trying to popularise these sports and make them pan-India because that is when the advertising dollars will start flowing in.