What makes TV special?

Why do marketers across categories trust this medium? Dabur, Upstox and iD Fresh Food execs opine.

Television is a culture-defining medium of communication that helps advertisers build trust around their brands. I spoke to a panel of marketing heads, across mature and young product segments, about the appeal of TV.

Watch the discussion on YouTube (below) or read on for edited excerpts.

Rajiv Dubey, head of media, Dabur India

If you want to legitimise your advertising and reach out 210 million households and 90 crore people in one go, there’s no better way than TV. If you want to sell to the masses, across different geographies, there’s nothing like the reach of broadcast. This is especially true for ‘repeat order businesses’ like ours, where you sell the same product the same person, again and again. The product-to-brand journey happens on TV.

Kunal Bhardwaj, senior marketing director, Upstox

When we at Upstox talk about television, we talk about the FTA (free-to-air) part. TV is a tool to fulfil business and marketing objectives, depending on where in its lifecycle a brand is. Upstox operates in a category that has only four per cent awareness in the country. So, TV is great; I can do carpet bombing and spread mass awareness. TV, if used and measured wisely, helps me tick off the top-of-the-funnel objectives.

TV legitimises your message, puts your brand on a pedestal, and makes it recognisable in a sea of other brands; for us, this happened when we advertised during the IPL. After that, we used digital as a performance and reminder medium. That’s actually a cheaper way of using digital.

Rahul Gandhi, CMO, iD Fresh Food

Of our total marketing spend, 50-55 per cent is on media. Within media, 65-70 per cent is on TV. There are many pockets of the country isolatable by TV, and given the brand lifecycle, TV plays an important role. Our genre is usually GECs – maybe 60-80 per cent goes there, followed by movies and music, depending on the market. Our media mix is similar to that of a Saffola or an Aashirvaad.

What makes TV special is the fact that it is a great storytelling medium. Also, the medium is such that the delivery of content is of a certain, superior, production quality and scale.

This panel discussion was recorded on November 16, 2021, at Television Week, an afaqs! conference (November 15-17, 2021). Sponsor: Colors Cineplex.

‘COLORS Cineplex’, a premium Indian movie destination for great cinematic experiences, is the first-of-its-kind film channel launched by leading media conglomerate Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd. Launched in May 2016, the channel provides its viewers with the ultimate movie-watching experience while delivering Viacom18’s promise of showcasing enriching, engaging and entertaining content to the viewers. Through its tagline of Filmein MUST Hain, ’COLORS Cineplex’ features multi-genre films including the latest blockbuster hits from Viacom18’s wide library of choicest films.

Image of TV sets taken from rawpixel.com.

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