Corona impact on Media & Advertising

Corona impact on Media & Advertising

The sudden spike in news channel viewing has brought in new viewers. Advertisers are queuing up to get the required GRPs (Gross Rating Point ) in the shortest possible duration. The interesting thing to watch out for is the decline in the GECs (General Entertainment Channel) advertising revenue. This is not because of the increased news viewing, also emerging from the fact that the actual shoots of a lot of soaps have come to a grinding halt a week back. The channels at best can pull on with their existing stock till may be mid – April.

The GECs will have 2 options in front of them:

1.    To run old Soaps / game shows as a re-run

2.    Switch to their stock of movies

·       STAR Vijay already has a second channel VIJAY SUPER that runs old programmes and movies.

·       SUN has KTV to run movies all 24 hrs.

·       Zee has launched Vellithirai for movies

While I was watching KTV yesterday, I could notice a considerable decrease in advertising but at the same time the spots have increased in the newschannels, with numerous ad breaks.

What are the categories that are advertising?

(I really don’t have a reason for their advertising.)

Paints : Jenson & Nicholson, Berger, Nippon

Tiles : Anuj Tiles

Polycab : Wires

Hospitals : SRM

Insurance : LIC

Flipkart : after they have announced that they will not deliver

Online education : Byju’s

Luxury Cars : Mahindra, Jaguar, MG

Lifebuoy : Handwashing (social messaging)

*More from TN Market and its channels

From the above list one brand “Lifebuoy” would be my pick, as you feel good that the brand is emphathising with you in the current season.

Why on earth will I think about a “Jaguar” when my basic existence is being questioned.

What Brands can do now?

·       Brands like J&J can advertise hygiene tips for babies

·       P&G can revive their “Share the Load” campaign

·       Whisper (from P&G) can talk about personal hygiene at times like these for women

·       Milk brands can talk about immunity

·       Lizol, Harpic, Sabeena, Dettol can preach a little bit more on the cleanliness part

·       Colgate, ORAL B can highlight on the need for brushing twice a day

·       Banks, Financial Institutions should come out and stress on the fact that their hard earned money will be safe and they should also try and provide some benefits  to its customers like : Provision buying through credit cards on EMI, Loan interests to be down etc.,

·       Netflix, Amazon, Hotstar should discourage people from watching more ( this will mark a new beginning in their brand building path. More like Cigarrette smoking is injurious to health, Investments in Mutual funds is a subject matter of risk)

·       Amazon Kindle should encourage people to read

·       High potential for Green Tea / Health products

·       Yoga is a big opportunity for brands

I am sure Brand Managers must be having a tough time in recovering revenues, but this is the time for investment as there is a big boom awaiting. There are sectors that will see a slow growth such as Banks, Tourism, Airlines, Luxury, 4 wheelers, High End Real estate, Hotels, Jewellery, Events. But the rise will certainly be on FMCG, Online education, Online delivery, Health, Consumer Durables – Home making, in the coming years.