CTV is the poster boy of advertising at the moment: Cheil India’s Kumar Awanish

Elections and IPL (Indian Premier League) has been the winning combo for advertisers in the first half of the year. Shooting ad spends have not only added to the Ad Ex of the year but have also delivered a significant year on year growth. In a chat with Storyboard18, Kumar Awanish, chief growth officer, Cheil India said ad spends in April is expected to have brought in an 18-25 percent jump compared to last year. The winner however is Connected TV, with every advertiser wanting to find a space on it.

Awanish talks about CTV growth, ad spends, big ticket events of the year and more.

Edited excerpts

What is the kind of increase in ad spends that you are noticing this April/May period due to the combined impact of IPL and elections?

All mediums put together along with 40 percent plus incremental advertisers, from the period of April to June, we can easily see an exponential growth of 18 percent to 25 percent in the advertising spends compared to same time last year.

CTV has been the talk of the town, do you see any surge in interest for CTV? Which brands are going for CTV? What has been the approximate spend on CTV ads this election+IPL season?

CTV is the poster boy of advertising at the moment, which is letting the brands bet big. Approximately, 60 percent plus brands from the participating categories are grabbing some share of CTV inventories. The limited inventory of CTV will restrict the overall digital budget share in the range of 12 percent to 18 percent. It is in the higher consideration set of automotive, foods and beverages, BFSI, perfume, e-commerce, gaming and smartphone brands.

What are the top ad spending categories experiencing the biggest surge in AdeX due to the combined effect of IPL and the upcoming elections?

Ecommerce, gaming, automotive, beverages and FMCG categories and associated brands are definitely topping the charts.

Can you tell us which genres of programming are performing best in terms of ad viewership during the IPL and election season?

Well, this is no brainer. News and sports genres are the ‘Men of the Match’ considering the IPL and election events, followed by entertainment, which has its own loyal fan pool.

How significant is the ad rate growth compared to usual periods, (or this time last year) considering both IPL and election?

If we consider IPL last year to IPL this year, there has been an insignificant growth of ad rates, but for news genre it is like a leap year with an extra day due to elections. On an average, the ad rate surge in news genre will be in the range of 35 percent to 45 percent. Some of the broadcasters have escalated the rates to as high as 70 percent.

Besides IPL and elections, are there any other upcoming events or trends that you anticipate will impact media buying strategies?

There are no significant events, except T20 World Cup that match the scale of IPL and elections in the near term, but there would certainly be some delta in the upcoming events. The second half of the year is power packed. T20 World Cup, Asia cup, Bilateral Series being the prominent ones in sports and KKK, KBC, BigBoss, IIFA and Filmfare in entertainment.