Entertainment firms use print ecosystem to woo audiences

ENTERTAINMENT FIRMS ALLOCATE AS MUCH AS 40% OF THEIR AD BUDGET TO PRINT, OWING TO ITS REACH

NEWDELHI: India’s entertainment companies, including multiplex chains, audio and video streaming platforms, film studios, and general entertainment television channels, still depend on print advertising to reach small towns and mass audiences, despite digital services gaining wide reach. Allocating as much as 40% of their advertising budget to print, many believe the medium is here to stay because of its reach across geography and demography.

Cinema exhibition chains are prompt in advertising new films, show timings, and the star ratings awarded to them. Video-ondemand platforms, the most evident reflection of the growing reach of India’s digital user base, also use the traditional print medium to announce show launches and subscription offers to lure customers. It isn’t uncommon to see posters of Netflix’s Sacred Games, or Amazon Prime Video’s Made In Heaven, occupying half pages of leading dailies. Film producer remain keen on putting out the first look, poster and then favourable reviews for their projects in mainstream newspapers and magazines, while general entertainment channels, such as Colors and ZEE, are equally enthusiastic about advertising new shows, both fiction and non-fiction.

“We believe newspapers are among the most impactful and non-intrusive mass marketing mediums because of their extensive reach across the country,” said Prashan Agarwal, CEO of music streaming service Gaana.

“The digital media ecosystem today has been flooded by brandmessages, overwhelming the audience and impacting message retention. However, newspapers still enjoy weighted respect among consumers and, hence, brand communique in print drives strong message retention, being one of the few mediums where patrons still seek ads on their own terms,” Agarwal said.

When Gaana had reached 100 million users, it looked at newspapers as the primary advertising medium to convey the message and hosted an extensive 44-city plan. Digital advertisements are targeted towards driving product consumption or transactions on a user’s part, but print ads track the entire journey, from informing consumers about the brand to driving purchase intent, thereby ensuring brand resonance, adaption, and durability, Agarwal said.

We often tend to get overwhelmed by the instant reach of digital platforms, but newspapers still carry a sense of topicality and information, especially in tier-two, three towns, said Anita Nayyar, CEO of Havas Media, India and South-east Asia.

The same kind of promotional information needs to be disseminated for movies, which command equal passion across all consumer age groups in the country. The consumption behaviour may differ marginally, but the love for movies is homogenous across the Indian population.

“Be it new movies, show timings, or the launch of a property, we always look at advertising in leading newspapers, including those in regional languages,” said Amrita Ganguly, associate vicepresident, marketing, at Carnival Cinemas. You can reach out to the youth through Whatsapp or Instagram, but the newspaper is the only way to address the entire family, especially when you’re talking of big-ticket family films which anyway do very well in India, said Ganguly.

“Movie lovers still refer to the movies and entertainment sections of the newspaper while making their cinema-going decision, which makes the medium reasonably efficient for us. The reach in tier-ii and tier-iii markets also adds to efficacy of print,” said Saurabh Varma, chief marketing officer, INOX Leisure Ltd.