Flipkart and Whatsapp turn to heavy TV advertising: Here is the reason why?
Did you notice the series of commercials running during prime time shows of popular messaging app such as Whatsapp and online shopping giant, Flipkart? We are sure you must have. Well, these brands needs no introduction but they are turning to heavy TV advertising to build a strong brand image through the portrayal of relatable characters in the ads. Flipkart along with its fashion brand Myntra and online payment app Phonepe increased TV ads considerably. Flipkart increased TV commercials from 84,770 times in 2017 to 155,983 times in 2018.
Whatsapp on the other hand, have acted differently and used agenda based advertising. Whatsapp ads focus on restricting people from spreading wrong piece of news through group sharing feature of the app. The tag line of the ad says ‘Share Joy Not Rumours’, which aware people about the impact of spreading fake news.
Top 5 TV Channels to advertise your brand in India
| TV Channel Name | Genre |
|---|---|
| Star Sports | Sports |
| Sony | Entertainment |
| Colors | Entertainment |
| MTV | Music |
| Aaj Tak | News |
Whatsapp , the free messaging app has over 200 million subscribers in India alone, this tells as to how famous Whatsapp as a brand is, still it has tuned to heavy TV advertising like Flipkart for the following reasons:
- Engagement through story telling: TV offers enough space, time and scope for audio-visual effects, that the viewer get engaged to the brand message for at least 30 seconds. Such elongated story telling and creativity that strikes an emotional chord with the audience is not possible in other mediums like radio, outdoor or online advertising.
- Builds elite brand perception: Even the audience is aware that TV advertising is expensive and only a brand with high stakes can afford to indulge in prime time advertising. We often say ‘I have seen the product ad on TV’. This statement comes from the perception that bands that do TV advertising are credible and elite.
- Experimentation and innovation: To combat the dominance of digital and online advertising, TV advertising is experimenting and adopting new ways to reach more segmented audience through geo-targeted TV commercials. The concept of programmatic TV advertising enables the brands to target specific group of audience.
TV advertising may be traditional but it is definitely the most trusted source of information till today. Online and digital ads are gaining momentum but due to over-crowding and distraction, the medium is not much reliable in comparison to TV advertising.
Leading sports TV channels in India
| Channel Name | Weekly Viewership (In Millions) | SD/HD Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Sony Ten 3 | 64 | Yes |
| Sony Ten 1 | 45 | Yes |
| Star Sports Hindi | 37 | Yes |
| Sony Six | 29 | Yes |
| Star Sports First | 17 | Yes |