The average ad insertions per day for publishers in South India saw a steady decline over the April-July 2020 period. For all the India market, average ad insertions per day declined in May over April before seeing a nominal decline in July ad insertions shot up significantly.

However, things are expected to look up for the south’s digital publishers with the onset of the festival season. LV Krishnan, chief executive officer, TAM Media Research says, “Onam will bring in the much-needed cheer to business and economy in Kerala. During the COVID-19 lockdown months, the Ad revenues mainly came from essential goods, Edu-com, and financial categories. But since the past couple of weeks, there has been an increased interest by the auto, retail, and jewellery across the traditional and digital mediums.”

Krishnan adds that “Integrated marketing activities by both regional and national players are definitely positive signs for Kerala. The digital platforms will complement the TV, Radio, and Print media and help push the promotional activities planned by marketers. Marketers could take full advantage of leveraging creative campaigns in mass traditional platforms integrated with digital video content to lure consumer interest during the coming festive season.”

Life insurance was the top category with a 13 percent share of digital ad insertions among south web publishers in the months under review. The top 10 categories on digital had more than 50 percent share of total ad volumes. The education and finance sectors were on the list of top 10 categories. During July 2020 compared to April and May this year more than 30 categories and 1300+ brands advertised exclusively on digital.

With ICICI Prudential Life Insurance leading the pack the top 10 advertisers accounted for 35 percent of total digital ad insertions on south web publishing platforms. Also, with an 11 percent volume share, ICICI Pru I Protect Smart was the top brand, followed by Motilal Oswal (7 percent share), and Veenam Software (5 percent share).

In July 2020, the share of regional digital advertisers saw minuscule growth when compared to April 2020. The ratio of national to regional advertisers on south web publishers went from 82:18 in April 2020 to 81:19 in July 2020. Out of the top 10 regional categories on Digital, 4 were from the education sector and 3 were from the retail sector. The categories of the top 10 regional advertising accounted for more than 80 percent of total ad insertion volume.

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Pepsi has announced that it will contribute a part of the proceeds from each soft drink added by their customer in their order to the NRAI COVID-19 Relief Corpus Fund. The soft drink could be of any brand offered in the restaurant, it could be even their packed beverages, no restrictions regarding it is mentioned by the company. The fund will be directly used to feed the workers suffering in these tough times. They have planned to serve approximately 2.5 Million meals.

In his recent statement, PepsiCo India Spokesperson said, “The restaurant industry is an integral part of our ecosystem and the ongoing health changes had severe impact on it. Both restaurants and workers are struggling in this process.” He also said that this endeavor is to find meaningful ways to contribute to the ecosystem and support restaurant families and workers who are in distress which is a timely intervention and need of the hour. 

This selfless action of Pepsi is similar to what Lifebuoy did. They recommended people to wash their hands regularly and keep themselves clean using any brand soaps and disinfectants. This shows how big brands with social responsibilities can help make a difference in this critical situation.

On seeing this initiative, Burger King has also extended their support to Pepsi through their twitter page saying that they are proud to support Pepsi India in their new initiative and also encouraged their customers to grab a Burger King Combo for the cause.

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The respondents have divided opinion on the percentage of cut in fees of the top 10 celebrities including cricketer Virat Kohli and Bollywood Actors Akshay Kumar, Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone. 22% feel that the endorsement fees shall come down by 20-30%, while 15% feel it should be 30-40% whereas 12% are of the opinion that minimum 40-50% cut should be considered.

Going by the industry estimates, it is known that Virat Kohli is the most expensive celebrity charging ₹5-5.5 crore a day to endorse Puma, Wrogn and Manyavar ethnic clothing among others. Increasing popularity of Alia Bhatt has her charging ₹1-2 crore a day for promoting Frooti, Garnier, Vicco toothpaste and Lay’s etc.

M.S. Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut falling under the category of ‘second tier celebrities’ are not to be spared either as similar percentage  of marketers demand similar percentage reduction in the endorsement fees.

With sharp decline in consumer demand and uncertainty in the market, 65% of the marketer respondents expect brand ambassadors to offer a significant reduction in the fees themselves, even in the contracts currently in force.

It is still not known whether celebrities would welcome this proposed reduction by the marketers or resort to ending the contract, latter being an imprudent decision in the face of the current economic scenario.

However, a senior talent management executive said, “The most amicable solution would be to suspend the contract for the term of lockdown or simply extend it by another four to six months. The best way forward is to negotiate so that it serves both the parties,” 

Tuhin Mishra, managing director of Baseline Ventures said, “Owing to unprecedented times that covid-19 has brought, some brands have approached us looking at an extension window or slight delay in fee payment along with contract extension by a few months,” 

“These requests are backed by genuine reasons and athletes understand the situation. It’s not rampant but some brands are facing challenges and we are working with them to negotiate the terms which serve both the parties,” he added.

However, the ongoing crisis on the financial front has not deterred the belief of the marketers in the power of celebrity endorsements.

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The online store will enable customers to explore all the range of Vespa and Aprilia scooters, select their city, dealership, apply for a loan, and book online by paying Rs 1,000, the company said in a statement.

“We are constantly innovating with our products and processes to address the needs of changing times, and we have planned many more initiatives in near future for our customers,” Piaggio India Chairman and Managing Director Diego Graffi said.

He further said, “We are committed to facilitating our customers to experience our world-class brands and products to fulfill their needs of mobility and empower them to enrich their individual lifestyle with adequate safety in the current situation.”

Piaggio India in its recent announcement had said it has opened Vespa and Aprilia dealerships in a staggered manner and are operating them in a safe environment,  by following social distancing norms which, included contactless greeting, wearing protective gear and use of hand sanitizers, the online platform will further help the process of buying in the current times.

The dealerships are now open in Bengaluru, Mysore, Belgaum, Bijapur, Davangere, Shimoga, and Udupi, Piaggio India said in a statement.

Piaggio India has already started its manufacturing operations at its Baramati plant for the supply of Vespa and Aprilia scooters. “We have been working together with our dealers in navigating through the new reality, and the opening of dealerships is a key step in that direction,” Diego Graffi said.

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