There was a notable revival in ad volumes in the genre during the third and fourth quarters with the count of advertisers and brands recovering by 33 percent and 36 percent, respectively, in the Fourth Quarter despite the pandemic, an extended lockdown, and accompanying unemployment.
According to the latest TAM AdEx numbers, the news genre posted a 5% growth in advertising compared to Year 2019. Alongside, like the previous year, the car category led new genre advertising with 4% share of ad volumes in 2020. Interestingly, hand sanitizers saw the highest increase in ad secondages, followed by Ecom-Education during the year when compared to last year. In terms of growth too, hand sanitizers topped with highest growth of 139 times followed by Ecom-Education with 4.4 times growth.
The news genre was hit badly during the initial phase of the lockdown. However, it made a comeback during the 3rd and 4th quarters. While the count of advertisers and brands dropped by 30% in Q2, they recovered by 33% and 36%, respectively, in Q4 as compared to Q2.
The data shows that the average ad volumes in the news genre attained pre-lockdown levels within two months of the lockdown being lifted. The genre also experienced positive growth in the festive period. In October 2020, ad volumes in the news genre showed a double-digit share even as there was a 49% growth in average ad volumes/day during the unlock period compared to the lockdown period.
In the larger landscape, Hindi news was the clear winner both in 2019 and 2020 as Hindi News channels topped the ad volume share in the genre at 33%.
As far as advertisers were concerned, the top sectors of the year were services at 14%, food and beverages at 13%, personal care/personal hygiene at 13%, personal healthcare at 9%, building, industrial and land materials/equipment at 7%, education at 7%, auto at 6%, household products at 5%, banking/Finance/Investment and 4% and hair care at 3%.
The leading categories for 2020 included cars, toiler soaps, toothpaste, retail outlets-jewellers, ecom-media/entertainment/social media, cement and multiple courses, spices, range of OTC products and toilet/floor cleaners.
Among brands, Reckitt Benckiser came at the top of the heap during seven months — January 2020 to April 20 and August 2020 to October 2020.
Exclusive advertisers in the genre in 2020 included Rahul Foundation, Nims University, Butterfly Ayurved, Nabadigant Educational Trus and Webart Softech among others. Overall, over 5000 advertisers advertised exclusively in the news genre during 2020.
