IPL or LS polls? Top 10 arguments by advertisers “for” and “against” news

New Delhi: With brands looking at doubling down on the news this general election despite the ongoing IPL season, many non-news advertisers are seeking news-only plans from their agencies, BestMediaInfo.com reported last week.

Several advertisers and their agencies told BestMediaInfo.com that advertisers with smaller budgets of up to Rs 10-15 crore are largely opting for news over IPL, thus hinting at a shift of considerable budget.

Also Read: General elections give news genre another opportunity to resurrect itself: Top advertisers

Here are the top 10 arguments by marketers for and against when it comes to considering general elections over IPL.

Marketer’s arguments in favour of general elections over IPL:

1. Two-month-long window for IPL and elections
2. The similar audience profile for IPL and news
3. Stickiness on news set to go up
4. The reach of news (top 5 channels combined) likely to be at par with IPL
5. Model Code of Conduct to ensure lesser toxicity on News
6. Cost-effectiveness - Sponsorship of top 5 news channels to cost 1/5th of IPL
7. Combined ER on top 5 news channels is 1/40th of IPL’s ER
8. Except for sponsors and big spenders on IPL, most of the brands including large clients, who see no point in spending less money on the tournament, are looking at the news
9. While many brands want limited association with news such as voting and counting days, many others want deeper associations with sponsorships
10. Clients with large portfolios of brands are looking at sponsorships as FCT in abundance spread over 4-5 brands will not be an overkilling

Marketer’s argument against news

1. For sponsorship, many brands do not want to associate with the kind of programming around elections such as “Kaun Banega…” for a longer period of time
2. This restricts advertisers to FCT, and L-bands during voting and counting days
3. They are sceptical about high pricing such as TV L-band being offered on counting days
4. News does not invest in content like IPL (cost of media rights and production)
5. Diversion of digital budgets to e-commerce or digital retail advertising
6. Fragmentation in news including consumption of digital streaming and textual news
7. Perception of the young audience not watching the news, despite BARC data offering 15+ numbers
8. Falling share of news to 3.5% to 4% which includes free platform vis-a-vis urban consumption of IPL on TV
9. For some, the news is just about tapping additional audiences because the news genre does not offer exclusive touchpoint
10. Sceptical about overkill as news gives them an excess of FCT in sponsorship