This epidemic, having impacted all sectors; mobile marketing and advertising, is no exception. In the short term, companies have and will curtail their marketing spend, till the situation stabilizes…
With businesses, industries, economies coming to a sudden halt, worldwide, due to the complete lockdowns and social distancing; possibly, the only way out to avert the pandemic COVID-19- the immediate feeler or would say reaction has been of ‘wait and watch’.
This epidemic, having impacted all sectors; mobile marketing and advertising, is no exception. In the short term, companies have and will curtail their marketing spend, till the situation stabilizes. However, going forward, the shift of advertising budget from traditional marketing like print, and ATL-outdoor activities to digital and mobile marketing, would witness a spike with END USER being indoors, and preferring to consume content primarily on their mobile phones or TV;and social distancing, WFH…. possibly becoming the new normal.
The stats, that have started to pour from various research and analyst firms; India (and globally too)- news and social chatting platforms, music & entertainment – streaming TV and Video games, and TV are seeing higher usage and therefore, possibly, will get more ad spend in the current time period, to catch the attention of the USER. In the latest BARC data–the viewership of news channels in India grew by 57%, and the advertising on news grew by 21% to about 10 million seconds of free commercial time (FCT). Advertising on kids’ genre went 27% up while Hindi Movies genre and Hindi GEC witnessed a jump of 8% each, in FCT.
The impact on new age Internet /e-commerce businesses viz. retail; essentially fashion, food, clothing, travel & tourism, is significant and there is a visible hit in ad-spend, there. If one talks, specifically about mobile marketing and advertising, from the Indian and South Asian market perspective, we do see more that 45-50 % marketers holding or pausing the campaigns, as of now. Our assessment of the market suggest that this marketing budget, which is currently put on hold due to the uncertainty, and all trying to understand and assess the situation, will be spent, with proper re look into the strategy in H2 of this year, with the changed environment, post the COVID-19, recede.
There is also, 15-20% of segment, who are coming, with the philosophy; that the current time is the best to get the focus on their brands, with less competition or clutter in the market. There are discussions, with few on the tactical changes- such as revisiting the messaging/content for the mobile campaign strategy. Its best for advertisers and marketers and we are witnessing too, that to an extent- a switch to purpose or say cause related campaigns, to have a positive brand image build, in the current crisis scenario, is the best way forward to benefit with ROIs later, once the environment and the COVID19 impact, starts receding.
With recession on its way, globally; overall, decline in business spends, will surely have an impact on the marketing budgets and that includes mobile marketing and advertising budgets too. And, the impact on the Indian markets will also be there, at least in the current quarter.
The sooner the recovery starts and economies are back to resuming of normalcy, that is by end of Q2, hopefully, we’ll see the businesses, especially the new age internet businesses, that have got a major hit, re look at the ad spending budgets along with the strategy.
