Advertising is the best way to make consumers aware. They are tailored to match short attention spans attract buyers. Online marketplaces are expected to spend more than Rs. 2,000 crore on advertising this festive season. Ads campaigns have been live for weeks now. And the spending still continues.
The ecommerce biggies may have specialised finances for their festive ad campaigns, says media consultant at Lodestar UM, Nikhil Rangnekar. But the smaller players have been saving up until the festival season to spend big on advertising.
HT Media’s director of revenue and strategy claims etailers are trying to make the best use of the festive season. Mediums apart from the traditional ones like Youtube, Facebook, Hotstar and Voot are being used to advertise marketplace sales. According to the Vice-President of Isobar, Gopan Menon, These video streaming platforms are where a huge chunk of etailer advertising funds is going.
In the first week of October itself, ecommerce companies spent around Rs. 500 crores on traditional channels of advertising, that includes print, TV and radio, states data from MAP (TAM Adex).
The most expensive medium last year was print and the same repeats this year. More than Rs. 280 crores or more than half of spends are absorbed by newspapers. On 24 editions of Times on India, a jacket is priced at Rs. 1.5 to Rs. 2 crores. On three leading editions of Hindustan Times, jackets cost between Rs. 80 lakhs to Rs. 1 crore.
Television, on the other hand, takes up only Rs. 100 crores in comparison. The cost of a 10-second slot on Hindi GEC during prime time is Rs. 70,000 to Rs. 1 lakh. Etailers are cashing in on sports tournaments like the Indian Super League (ISL). Media planning and buying company, Carat India’s VP, Rajni Menoon says, ecommerce firms are associating themselves with reality shows too.
The foreign online marketplace used at least Rs. 150 to Rs. 200 crores to market its first Great Indian Festival sale this month. The company is expected to have spent 282 crores on television, radio and print media this year, during the first week of October. This amount much higher than what was spent last year’s entire season. The etailer hosted a second sale last week and begins its third sale for the season today. Also, both Amazon and Flipkart have each spent Rs. 60 crore on digital advertising their sales. Snapdeal has already spent 200 crores on its advertising.
This year Shopclues isn’t following the ad spend trend. The Indian etailer says it will be concentrating on its sellers. Shopclues co-founder Radhika Aggarwal said the company will be spending less on ads and promotions this year. Its main focus currently is on its sellers and that’s where the marketplace wants to invest.
But not everyone thinks this way. Major marketplaces still believe aggressive advertising will get them the results they want.
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