BANGALORE: The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), in a study, has concluded that various Indian industries will be investing over Rs 3,535 crore in digital advertising by the end of this year. In the 4th edition of the IAMAI Digital Advertising report, found that travel and automobile industries have invested huge amounts in digital advertising. “Since March 2010, there has been a growth of around 25 per cent in all the components of digital advertisements. It is expected that this growth will reach Rs 3,535 crore by this year end and Rs 4,391 crore by the next financial year (March 2013),” the report stated.What is digital advertising?Digital advertising is an extension of online advertising, including advertising on mobile phones and tablets. “With these devices becoming a core component of media today, it is necessary to encompass various forms together into a category called digital advertising. In addition, classifieds have also been included as a part of the total digital advertising industry. classified related to matrimonial/dating, jobs and other B2C classified have been included,” said Dr Subho Ray, president, IAMAI.The report indicates that the Indian market was estimated at Rs 1,623 crore as of March 2010 -comprising display, search and classified. “As per our primary research findings, the industry size has increased to Rs 2,277 crore by March 2011 and to Rs 2,851 crore as of March 2012.”Travel and BFSI continues to be the main spenders as far as display advertisements are concerned. The display advertisements spent by automotive companies have risen from 9 to 14 per cent in two years. Why go digital?Advertisers believe that digital advertising helps them reach users from different demographic areas on single platform. “Also, measurement is easy. It is simple to track the effectiveness of the advertisement campaign. Besides, its also interactive and engages the audience through various means,” experts claim. Mobile advertisement is an important part of digital advertising. Suresh Kabra, founder-CEO, Clk2C.com says, “Mobile advertisement grew from `90 to `105 crore in 2012. Over 70 per cent people across India use mobile phones. Moreover, the cost of owning a feature-rich and Internet-enabled mobile phone is decreasing day-by-day. A high-end phone is available at Rs 3,000 and monthly internet plan starts from as less as Rs 50. This has resulted in over 4-5 lakh people using mobile phones. As target audience increase, so will advertisers. The industry is set to grow by Rs 150 to Rs 200 crore year on year.”However, many believe that this is not going to be a competition to conventional forms of advertising. “This transition has brought about a semblance of order in the industry. The industry is aware that there is a transition amongst the target audience who are tech savvy, as the Internet provides everything that the normal conventional forms of media provides.Further, with more than 50 per cent of the target audience being youngsters and at the same time 50 per cent forming rural part of the country, the conventional forms of advertising will never take a back seat,” said Debadutta Upadhyaya, VP-India and spokesperson, Vdopia.Rise in Social media advertisingSocial media advertising too has witnessed an increase from last year. While the total amount spent in 2011 on this form was `80 crore, this year it has gone up to `94 crore. “Four out of the top 20 most visited sites in India are social networking sites. This builds a strong case for advertisers to be where their audience lie. Social media advertising helps customers involve with various brands, rather than just be informed about them,” explained Ian Sequeira, Vice-President (South & West), 20:20 MSLAdvertising gurus however are not very amused. They have vowed to defend conventional forms of advertising under any circumstances. “It is true that advertisers were willing to experiment with digital marketing. But India still has many years of conventional media. The progress of the new media will be slow. But it should be noted that not everyone has digital access,” said Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and creative director, South Asia, Ogilvy & Mather.“People are very selective about what form of advertising they approve. They will surely ways to skip advertisements online and then firms would look at other ways to put out ads that people can’t avoid, by embedding them. People said SMS advertising would work wonders, but it led many customers to be irritated every time an ad came into their mobile inbox. It is an invasion of space. Indians are still not completely fed up of ads on the internet. Also, people can buy software that help them block ads online,” argued Kakkar.
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