Webchutney's Digital Media Outlook sees FMCG sector bullish on online

Webchutney has released ‘Digital Media Outlook 2009’, a survey that aims to study the perceptions and understanding of brand marketers to get a clear picture of the status and usage of the Internet as a medium.

Throwing some light on the current scenario for digital in the country, the study claims, that in spite of 82% of the top 500 marketers allocating advertising spends to the Internet, the actual spend share of this medium is only 5%. The IT/Online sector accounts for 23% of total online spends, while Banking, Financial services and Insurance (BFSI) accounts for almost 17% of total spends among the top 500 marketers. The study claims that although sectors such as FMCG, consumer durables and consumer services and utilities make up almost 70% of total ad spends across all mediums, they account for only 30% of online ad spends.

In an attempt to understand the main objectives behind marketers' digital spends, the study has observed that 60% of a base of 445 marketers mentioned ‘increasing awareness’ as the biggest objective, followed by 46% citing ‘increased lead/ sales / market share / customer base’ as an objective. 46% mentioned ‘building brand image / differentiation’ as their objective and 9% were inclined towards ‘customer satisfaction / engagement’ as one of the objectives in their brand strategy.

The study claims that for marketers, reaching the target audience or building awareness is the biggest deciding factor in deciding advertising spends, and attributes that as a reason for why online is allocated only a share of 5%.

The study further asserts, that measurement metrics to measure the reach of online marketing campaigns are still very basic. Of a base of 365 marketers, 26% still measure effectiveness of online based on the number of leads generated / sales / revenue generated / visits to stores, while another 26% go by page views / site visits. A third, 26% measure effectiveness on the basis of Clicks, CTR / CPM / CPC / CPA / CDR.

FUTURE OUTLOOK

The study predicts that the overall ad spends from the top 500 marketers are likely to fall by 10%, from Rs. 5,136 crore in 2008-2009 to Rs. 4,653 crore in 2009-2010. However, the study claims that digital media spends are likely to rise by 44%, from Rs. 278 crore to Rs. 399 crore. Also, according to the study, if top marketers continue to make up for two thirds of the total online spends, then total digital spends may even cross Rs. 625 crore in 2009-2010.

In the FMCG category, the current online spends are estimated to be around Rs. 16 crore. However, these spends are likely to rise upto Rs. 72 crore in 2009 which is almost a 353% rise.

Webchutney also claims that IT/ ITeS / Internet companies would continue to spend in digital, with spends that are expected to go up by 70%. BFSI may cut down its spends by 35%, which means that it will go down from Rs. 47 crore to Rs. 30 crore. The study claims that 2008-2010 will see mobile spends rising from 2% of the total digital spends to 9%. Viral ads too, may grow by almost 90% in the overall online spends' pie, according to the study.

The study analyses the composition of Internet users and tries to understand their engagement. It also advises marketers to tap into the online market.