TAM Print Adex report: Maruti Suzuki dominates top 10 advertisers list for 2023

TAM Media Research has released its latest report: ‘Print: A glimpse into advertising trends for 2023’, revealing annual trends in the Indian print media space.

Key insights include the advertising space per publication showing a consistent growth—an increase of 2% over 2022 and 4% over 2019. In quarterly trends, both Q2 and Q4 of the 2023 financial year witnessed a growth of 7% and 28% compared to Q1 of 2023.

In the same year, the top seven sectors retained their respective positions compared to 2022. Also, the top 10 sectors collectively added 83% share of ad space on the print medium, half of which was taken up by the top three contenders: Services, education and auto. These three accounted for 15%, 14% and 13% share of ad space, respectively. Retail, banking/finance/investment, personal accessories, personal healthcare, food & beverages, durables and personal care/personal hygiene constituted the remaining 41%, the rest going to other sectors.

Cars was the leading category with 7% share of ad space, maintaining its number one position since 2022. Properties and real estate followed with 5%, sharing the space with two-wheelers and coaching and competitive exam centres also at 5% share each.

Interestingly, out of the top 10 categories, two were from the services sector in 2023. Together, the top 10 categories had a collective share of 44%.

In terms of growing categories, 300 of them showed positive growth with spices topping charts with a 73% growth, followed by public issues and cars with 59% and 41% respectively.

Of the leading advertisers, Maruti Suzuki India ascended to the first position in 2023, compared to 2022, where it was just behind SBS Biotech. Both Kia Motors Corporation and Bajaj Auto made a steep ascent, with their debut into the top 10 advertisers’ list—capturing the 9th and 10th positions respectively in 2023 over 2022. The top 10 advertisers contributed 13% share of the ad space in print.

Among the leading brands, Maruti's Car Range dominated the list that contains an astounding 185,000+ brands in 2023. Aakash Byjus and Fiitjee took the next two spots, with Kedia Sezasthan coming in fourth and also emerging as the top exclusive brand (advertising exclusively in print)—an incredible upward trajectory for this Jaipur-based residential developer versus 2022.

Diwali was the top festival for advertising, with 42% share of ad space followed by Navratri and Durga Puja, then Christmas and New Year with 11% and 9% share respectively.

Also covering ad innovations in print: The TAM Print Adex Report revealed that in 2023 ‘jacket-full page’ (advertising in print format that essentially wraps around the main content of a print publication) was the preferred ad position by advertisers of print. 8,300 brands advertised as jacket-full page (newspaper and magazine), among which Fiitjee was the top brand.

While 65% of ad space was consumed by brand promotions, ‘sales promotion’ advertising covered 32% share of ad space in print during 2023. Ads with an incentive offer by advertisers to increase the sale of their brands all fell under this category.