Q4’ 22 witnessed a five per cent ad volume growth for the auto category, as compared to Q3’ 22: TAM AdEx Report

Mumbai: TAM Media Research’s division AdEx has released its report for the year 2022 giving an overview of the automobile industry using TV, print, radio and digital.

Television

In terms of ad volumes for the automobile industry on TV, it grew by eight per cent in the year 2021 over the year 2020.  In Q2 of 2022, the ad volumes observed a 52 per cent drop; post that there was significant growth in Q3 & Q4. Compared to Q3 of the year 2022, Q4 witnessed a five per cent ad volume growth.

When it comes to monthly ad volumes, the auto sector had consistent ad volumes from July to October, wherein, October had the highest share of ad volumes. From April to June, this sector had the lowest shares.

The cars category alone contributed 44 per cent to the total ad volume share of the auto sector followed by two-wheelers with 40 per cent. The ad volumes of the commercial vehicles category grew by 5.4 times in 2022 as compared to 2021, whereas, the shares of cars and two wheelers, the top two categories, declined by 25 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively.

Talking about the advertisers, the top 10 advertisers accounted for more than 65 per cent share of ad volumes in 2022 with TVS Motor Company topping the list.

Among the top 10 brands from the auto industry, Suzuki Avenis was on top, followed by Kia Carens. The top 10 brands of 2021 constitute of four brands from TVS Motors and two from Renault India. The top 10 Brands accounted for 28 per cent share of ad volumes in 2022 with seven two-wheelers brands and three car brands.

With regard to the top channel genres preferred by advertisers of the auto sector on TV, the top two channel genres on TV together accounted for nearly 75 per cent of ad volumes share during 2022. The news channel genre topped the preference list for the auto industry during 2022 with more than 56 per cent share. The news bulletin genre is the most preferred for promoting auto brands on television. The top two program genres i.e. news bulletin and feature films together added 60 per cent to the total ad volume share.

Prime time was the most preferred time band on TV followed by afternoon and morning time bands. The prime time and afternoon time bands, together, accounted for 55 per cent share of ad volumes.

As per the report, the advertisers of the auto sector preferred a 40-60 secs ad size on TV. 40-60 seconds and <20 seconds ads together held a 92 per cent share in 2022.

Print

Talking about the ad space for the auto industry in print, as compared to Q1 of the year 2022, Q4 witnessed a 49 per cent ad volume growth. The usage of ad space in print declined by seven per cent in 2021 over 2020 and by six per cent in 2022 over 2021. Like the television medium, the print medium too observed the lowest ad space usage in Q2. 

In terms of the monthly ad space trend of the auto category in print, the lowest share of ad volume was in May’22. The ad space in print witnessed growth in Oct’22 i.e. the festive period.

The report mentions that the top two categories in the print media from the auto sector, cars and two-wheelers, together, accounted for nearly 84 per cent of the total ad space of the category. The top five advertisers accounted for 58 per cent share of ad space in 2022 with Maruti Suzuki India and Hero Motocorp leading the list with 23 per cent and 15 per cent share, respectively.

The top 10 brands accounted for nearly 30 per cent share of ad space in 2022 with Maruti Car Range leading the list. Within these, six brands each were from two-wheeler and four from the car category in 2022.

43 per cent of the total ad space utilised by the auto industry advertisers was in Hindi Publications. The top five publication languages accounted for 83 per cent share of the auto category’s ad space. The general interest publication genre added 97.8 per cent share.

With regard to zone-wise advertising share of the automobile sector in print, among four zones, North ranked on the top for auto advertising with a 34 per cent share of the sector in print during 2022. On an overall India level, New Delhi & Mumbai were the top 2 cities with maximum auto ads in the print medium.

The advertising promotions of the auto industry in print suggest that 61 per cent of the total ad space was utilised by the auto industry’s advertisers for different types of sales promotions in the print media. Among sales promotions, multiple promotions occupied a 74 per cent share of the pie followed by discount promotions with a 20 per cent share in 2022.

Radio

The report points out that the ad volumes for the auto category on radio grew by 37 per cent in 2022 over 2020 and by 24 per cent as compared to 2021. Q4’22 witnessed 123 per cent ad volume growth for the sector on radio as compared to Q1 of 2022.

Discussing the monthly ad volume trend of the auto sector on radio, the lowest ad volumes were observed in Apr’22 and May’22. The festive period boosted ad volumes for the auto industry from Aug’22-Dec’22.

On Radio, ads for cars and Ret Cars ruled with 73 per cent of the total ad volume share of the auto sector. The top five advertisers accounted for 52 per cent share of ad volume in 2022 with Maruti Suzuki India leading the list.

Among the Top 10 auto brands, four brands belonged to Maruti Suzuki India and two to Hyundai Motor. The top 10 Brands accounted for 29 per cent share of ad volumes in 2022 with Maruti Suzuki Arena leading the brand’s list. Nine out of the top 10 brands on radio belonged to the car category.

Looking at the state-wise share of auto advertising on radio, the top five states accounted for 63 per cent share of ad volumes for the auto industry. Maharashtra topped the states with a 17 per cent share of ad volumes followed by Gujarat with a 16 per cent share. Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu’s ad share increased by 2.5 times.

The advertising for the auto sector was preferred in the evening and morning time-band on radio. 42 per cent share of the auto ad insertions were in the evening time bands followed by 36 per cent in the morning during 2022.

Digital

The report states that the ad insertions of the auto industry on digital soared 2.3 times in 2022 over 2020 and, by 1.3 times over 2021. The lowest ad insertions were observed in Q2 with a 29 per cent drop as compared to Q1’22.

In terms of the monthly ad insertion trend of the auto category on digital, the highest percentage was observed in Feb’22 with 12 per cent of total digital ad insertion shares followed by Oct’22 (festive period).

On the digital medium, the car category topped the auto industry with nearly 40 per cent of the ad insertions followed by the two-wheelers category with 20 per cent. The top 10 advertisers accounted for 44 per cent share of ad Insertions in 2022 with Tata Motors leading the list.

The top 10 brands accounted for a 26 per cent share of ad insertions in 2022 with Yokohama leading the list with four per cent of the total ad insertions of the auto sector on the digital medium. Among the top 10 brands, five brands belonged to the car category.

Ad Network topped with 50 per cent share of transaction method for digital advertising of auto sector in 2022. Programmatic transaction method ranked at 2nd position for auto ad insertions on digital.