Will print be able to capitalise on the festive fervour this year?

Every year, brands, marketers, media publishers, agencies look forward to a bumper festive season. Ever since the Covid-19 disruption, the market has been hoping for a return to the pre-Covid levels of festive revenues, and maybe even surpass the pre-2020 fervour. Over the years, the festive season has expanded from the usual Dussehra-Durga Puja-Diwali period and commences as early as Independence Day and Raksha Bandhan and extends beyond Diwali to include Halloween, Black Friday, Thanksgiving, before the Christmas and New Year festivities.

The year 2024 is no different. In an earlier interaction with Adgully, Ashish Bhasin, Founder, The Bhasin Consulting Group, said, “We usually see about 40% to 45% of the year’s total ad spend between Ganpati and New Year. This year, I expect at least a 10% to 15% increase compared to last year. The good monsoon so far is a significant boost for the rural economy, which is crucial for many large advertisers, especially FMCGs. This is a positive sign for advertising overall.”

While Digital is expected to hog a major part of the festive ad spends, traditional media like print is also looking for a strong performance this year. Despite some headwinds, such as rise in newsprint cost, shutting down of some editions pan-India, transitioning of readers to digital platforms, print has largely remained buoyant.

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As per Statista, ad spending in the Print Advertising market in India is forecasted to reach $2.04 billion in 2024, with Newspaper Advertising cornering the largest market volume at $1.96 billion. However, this still falls short of $2.53 billion print ad spends reported in 2019. It is expected that the number of readers in the Print Advertising market in India will reach 487.3 million users by 2029. The average ad spending per reader in the Newspaper Advertising market is anticipated to be $8.28 in 2024. In comparison, magazine advertising remains flat, with average ad spending per reader at $0.67 in 2024.

Print advertising in India is experiencing a resurgence as companies tap into the country’s diverse market to create targeted campaigns. Even before the festive season set in, Print media had witnessed significant revenue and profitability growth thanks to the Lok Sabha elections and a fall in newsprint prices.

However, the newsprint cost has gone up by as much as 8% recently to cross the $600 mark per metric tonne, as per industry experts. This has been attributed to the Ukraine-Russia war and hike in freight container rates.

In 2023, unexpectedly lower ad spends were witnessed in print during the festive seasons, both regionally and nationally, as reported in the annual FICCI EY M&E report. According to the report, the coinciding of events like IPL and CWC with festivals might have diverted funds, impacting print revenue during these periods.

The FICCI EY report expects the print segment to grow at a CAGR of 3.4% till 2026, while advertising is pegged to grow at a CAGR of 4.7%, driven by access to increasingly elusive affluent audiences and premium inventory formats.

The Madison report expects Print to grow by 7% in 2024 to reach Rs 20,613 crore and finally surpass the pre-Covid 2019 figures. The report predicts record festive season print ad spends this year.

While readers have the choice between multiple channels of information, their trust remained highest in newspaper brands. The desire of readers to be informed and aware is making them seek out content with depth, multiple perspectives, explanations and analysis, but the most important factor for readers in choosing a medium was credibility and lack of bias.

In a bid to create stronger narratives for the consumers, print media is introducing innovations such as panorama, seamless jackets and the French window. Brands are also looking at new formats like Mixed Reality print ads. For instance, Tanishq teamed up with Flam, a mixed-reality platform, recently to create the brand’s first-ever mixed reality (MR) print advertisement led by Tanishq’s digital partner, Hiveminds Innovative Market Solutions, the digital specialist unit of Madison World. This innovative campaign allowed readers to scan a QR code on the newspaper ad with their smartphones, bringing the static visual to life with dynamic video content. This unique experience allowed viewers to delve into an immersive video experience with a heartwarming message, and seamlessly navigate Tanishq's online store to explore their wide variety of diamond jewellery.

Cheil India also unveiled an innovative print ad campaign for Samsung’s AI-powered Galaxy S24 series, using mixed reality technology to showcase the ‘Circle-to-search’ feature.

Auto, FMCG, Education, Retail and Real Estate contribute 50% to Print Adex. This year Auto is the leader of the pack with 14% share and has contributed most to the growth of Print Adex.

Hindi and English Publications contribute over 64% to the total Print Advertising space consumed in India. Marathi comes next. But the volume of space used collectively in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati, Oriya. Bengali, Punjabi, Assamese and Urdu is relatively low.

This year had started off well for the advertising industry overall with a surfeit of big events such the IPL, ICC Men’s World Cup, Lok Sabha elections, the Paris Olympics. Industry experts see this momentum continuing into the second half of the year.

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