How COVID-19 impacted advertising in Sri Lanka?

How COVID-19 impacted advertising in Sri Lanka?

Source: Survey Research Lanka (Pvt) Ltd (SRL) for Daily News

This article is written based on real-time data that are collected by SRL on media spend during COVID-19 and a comparative analysis of it with the same period in 2019. This is an exploration of advertisement spend on TV and radio only. Although the advertising spends on print media had been captured in the SRL AdEx project, it is not considered for this analysis given that most of the Newspapers did not print during COVID-19.

The general trend of advertising spending in April and December months of the year are very different from the other ten months for obvious reasons. Due to heavy media spends in the seasonal months; brands definitely would have had the same plans for this April as well. COVID-19 changed all the plans, unexpectedly. The impact made on advertising spends due to the calamity of the Easter Sunday attack in 2019 was negligence when compared to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic which is global. In April 2020, we could see a drastic drop in brands’ spending patterns on TV and Radio Advertisements as a result of COVID-19.

advertisements & other spots aired sri lanka

COVID-19 impact on utilization of air time of mass media by brands - the total number of advertisements & other spots aired on TV in the month of April 2019 was 144,538 and it had dipped to 80,047 in April 2020. This is a 45% drop compared to April 2019. When it comes to radio, the total of 235,216 advisements had been aired in April 2019, the corresponding number for this year April was 71,941 and it was a 69% drop. It clearly shows that pandemic COVID-19 has a significant impact on air time utilization by advertisements and the impact made on Radio commercials insignificant.

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COVID-19 impact on advertising spend on mass media- Total spend for the month of April 2020 on TV and Radio advertisements was Rs.2.9bn (based on the rate card values) and this parallel in January 2020 (three months before), was Rs.6.7bn which is nearly 56% drop of advertising expenditure in the two main mass media, TV and Radio. TV contributed to around 80-85% of the total Ad Expenditure (AdEx). In a normal situation, AdEx in April and December months is higher than other months of the year; for an example, increased of total AdEx (TV & Radio) January 2019 vs. April 2019 was 11.5% (With one week impacted from Easter Attack). But, in this year (2020), Total AdEx of TV and Radio has decreased by 56% compared to January 2020. Furthermore, TV AdEx has decreased by 55% while Radio AdEx decreased by 65% with COVID-19.

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While total advertising expenditure in the month of May shows a slight improvement due to the rise in TV advertisement expenditure, spending on Radio continues to drop in the month of May too. As per the below two charts, with the diminishing number of advertisements, advertising expenditure drop continues. When comparing with the same month in the previous two years, it shows a drastic drop in advertising expenditure in the month of May 2020.

COVID-19 impact on advertising spend by different sectors -It was not just the representation but the absolute Ad expenditure by Telecommunication, Bank & Financial Services, Insurance and Cough & Cold Remedies on TV has increased in April 2020 when compared with the Ad expenditure by these sectors in January 2020.

It was important to note that most of the communications were very informative more than ever which was a very important indication that all of us witnessed through advertisements during the COVID-19 period.

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This time for marketers is not about spending as usual on marketing communication, but the absence of Marketing Communications also alarming. It’s like a free window they are providing for competition and small/cottage players to grab share off their shelf space. Or maybe marketers are making their own consumers condition themselves to be able to survive without their product or service.

Full Article: http://www.dailynews.lk/2020/06/09/finance/220275/would-covid-19-pandemic-treat-advertising-industry-well


Amithap Kumar

Skilled Marketing Professional / MCIM(UK) / Media Catalyst / Sports Fanatic

4y
Pamodi Kuruppu

Creative Strategist, Behavioral Science Enthusiast, Copywriter, Ideator and Occasional Poet.

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Election might help agencies right? And probably the appearance of digital services might help agencies that do digital work.

Suthaharan Perampalam

Economist | Social Research Specialist | Consumer Insight | Co-Founder of Sparkwinn Research | Entrepreneur

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Elections used to give short term spike, could it be bailout?

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