Rural Ratings Augur Well For Television

As per recently released Accenture study, “Masters of Rural Markets: From Touchpoints to Trustpoints - Winning over India's Aspiring Rural Consumers,” rural consumers are keen to purchase branded, high quality products. As an outcome, businesses in India are optimistic about anticipated growth of the country's rural consumer markets. As per the estimates, FMCG sector in rural and semi-urban India is likely to cross US$ 20 billion by 2018 and US$ 100 billion by 2025. FMCG market has grown at CAGR of CAGR of 13.2 per cent to US$ 100 billion from 2009 to 15. As rural electrification drive gains momentum, demand for consumer electronics is also slated to increase.

It is in this backdrop that one needs to deliberate on rural television ratings which would now be part of BARC All India Television Audience Measurement. BARC ratings for week 41 are out. Ratings this week were awaited with much anticipation, as rural data finds presence in television audience measurement in India for the first time, and would now be an integral part of BARC ratings. BARC India’s reach is now expanded to 153.5 million TV households: 77.5 million urban TV households and 76 million rural TV households.

Data for week 41 had a few surprises in store for channels. Is it advantage FTA? One would be able to understand that better once the ratings for next four weeks come out.

Rural television consumption data would definitely impact the media planning & buying cauldron in Rural India.  But would it bring a change in the way brands connect with rural consumers or not calls for an in-depth conversation.  T Gangadhar, MD, MEC takes the discussion forward, “It is also for the very first time we have the same consumer classification principles for both urban rural (NCCS). Presently any TV activity targeting rural is based on intelligent assumptions. Now we have the real opportunity to know what 70% of the country is watching. Will there be change in the pecking order? They could well be. We have seen TV stations performing very differently when the TAM meters expanded to LC1 markets. It's possible there could be a similar trend once BARC starts reporting rural viewership data.”

Nikhil Rangnekar. CEO - SA 1 at Spatial Access adds, “While advertisers and agencies have been using certain surrogate measures or data extrapolation to get an understanding of the rural viewership behaviour, BARC will now give us real data. Depending on the findings, there would be certain changes required in the plans to make them more effective and efficient for a rural audience.” He, however, emphasises, “Unless, we see a big change from the currently understood behaviour of rural audiences, there won’t be a big difference in the way brands connect with these audiences.”

Rural markets, as stated in the beginning, are no longer markets in waiting. A number of product categories are now looking at penetrating deeper in rural India and for them these ratings can be a key deciding factor as far as their exposure with rural audiences is concerned. As Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO South Asia Dentsu Aegis Network, Chairman Posterscope and psLive - Asia Pacific says, “In many categories a lot of growth is expected to come from rural India because urban markets, particularly the metro markets are reaching the saturation point. Rural television data would play an important part while evaluating rural consumers’ engagement with various media.”

Scarcity of rural media consumption data has often been stated as a key concern area by the brands. With the new ratings in place, marketers might find this data beneficial in using right channels to engage with the rural consumer. Anita Nayyar, CEO India & South Asia at Havas Media explains, “Rural data has been really deficient and considering 60-70% India still resides in rural, this will be an important piece. It will encourage brands to invest and advertisers to spend, helping grow the TV ad pie too.”

As per Nilesen research estimates, India’s rural FMCG market would reach a size of US$ 100 billion by 2025. Another report by McKinsey indicates that annual real income per household in rural India would increase to 3.6 per cent 2025, from 2.8 per cent in the last 20 years. Anupriya Acharya, Group CEO, ZenithOptimedia Group, India endorses, “Rural markets rank high in consumption trends and it is becoming very important for marketers – be it mobile handsets, durables or fast moving consumer goods to tap into rural markets.” She adds, “Rural measurement will provide a better selection of channels. It will lead to more effective media buys for rural audiences. In the absence of this data, marketers and agencies try to extend the learnings and research on urban India, into rural. This may not always lead to the right conclusions.”

Ashish Bhasin is quick to emphasise that ground reality as to media consumption and touchpoints is not going to change – the impact would only be in form of information we get. He says, “I don’t think the consumer life will change in anyway because a consumer is watching what he/she is watching. It is just that we have been in the dark and we will get to know whether the assumption we have been making is true or not. I think those will get validated or de-validated.”

BTL and retail advertising, till date, are two key components of rural communication. Would television ratings impact the share of various media in the pie or not is a difficult question to answer as of now. Anita Nayyar, interestingly, believes that rural television measurement might in fact increase total media spends in rural India, “The data will encourage advertisers to spend on Television to cater to the rural customer who is important to many brands. The overall rural ad pie should increase, and not cannibalize the TV spends.” 

Anupriya Acharya and Ganga meanwhile believe that backed by solid numbers television might in fact see a higher share of rural media budgets. Ganga says, “Given TV's reach, its importance in a media plan targeting rural India could see a sharp rise.  This doesn't necessarily mean that other media will perish at the hands of TV. The power situation in small towns and rural areas has always been a concern -so, other media intervention options will always be in play.”

Anupriya Acharya, however, believes that it would definitely bring a clarity in thinking. She says, “We have seen that whenever a medium is backed by a strong measurement system, it sees an increase in ad expenditure. Marketers are clearer where they are putting their monies and what will be their ROI. Look at how television pie has grown over years – it is scheduled to become larger than print advertising.”

The government intends brining electricity of villages as a priority. Power cuts in rural areas, however, are still a common occurrence. Shouldn’t there still be a concern in term of television’s actual impact as pointed out by Ganga?  Nikhil emphasises, “The same was thought to be true before TAM started releasing LC1 markets data but there is not too much difference in the TV consumption of small town audiences. Similarly, if BARC shows that TV consumption in terms of hour of viewing is not drastically different from their urban counterparts, TV will continue to be dominant medium in rural areas. However, if the data shows the opposite, it will give a big boost to the BTL sector.”

The picture as to which channel is headed, and how relevant those rankings are for various brand and product categories would become clearer in course of time. However, for bands which use TV comprehensively, and for who rural markets are important might start rejigging their media spends as early as in the next 30 days or so.