Mumbai: As the home to nearly 68.89 million active direct-to-home (DTH) subscribers, India has witnessed significant growth in DTH advertising. With this top DTH service providers like Tata Play are also ramping up their game as an effective ad medium for brands.

According to an expert from the marketing and communications industry, presently 30-35 brands out of 50 prefer DTH to advertise their products and services.

Interestingly, the medium has attracted brands across categories, from banking giants like SBI and Axis Bank to the leading automobile brands like BMW and Honda.

Realme, who partnered with Tata Play, formerly Tata Sky, for advertising, sees DTH as a traditional advertising medium with high potential to connect the brand to communicate with audiences in tier 2 and 3 areas.

From providing direct entry to homes and enabling them to deliver messages to their target audiences, DTH has emerged as an effective communication channel for brands to enjoy top-of-mind recall.

“It’s the opportunities and advantages of DTH that has attracted the retailers to advertise on this powerful medium,” said AliveNow founder & CEO Advith Dhuddhu. “At the same time, DTH is highly clutter-free and provides exclusive space to the advertisers to engage their target audience.”

While ads on digital platforms lose exclusivity due to distraction, DTH helps deliver targeted messages. It allows brands to connect with their audience when in a happy environment, mostly when they’re calmly sitting and watching TV at their homes.

At the same time, the attention span on DTH ad mediums is higher. Patanjali Ayurved COO-media & communications Anita Nayyar feels that DTH as an option that helps unmissable attention from the audience will always be sought after by brands.

DTH’s growth as an advertising medium

However, DTH has not suddenly become a popular platform for advertising but has been relevant ever since its inception. If we look back to 2010, when DTH subscribers were barely half of the present number, the platform was still seen as a strong advertising medium among retail brands. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that DTH has always been among the top choices of media planners, according to experts.

Over the years, DTH has developed its own set of audiences which makes DTH advertising an interesting option, noted Nayyar.

She credited the present growth of DTH advertising mediums to the halt on other major advertising platforms due to the pandemic. For instance, the consumption of newspapers fell during the first lockdown, so did print advertising. But television still registered 9-10 per cent growth, which is evident for the growth of DTH too.

How did DTH platforms level up the game?

DTH companies are also doing their bit to harness the medium’s potential. For instance, Tata Play, with over 23 million connections has had associations with more than 100+ brands, including Swiggy, RealMe, Lotus Herbal, over the past 15-18 months. Buoyed by the advertisers’ response, Tata Play has rolled out various mediums for advertising over the last few years.

This is not it, Tata Play advertising medium has a whopping reach to over 80 million individuals, which makes it a favorite of brands. The platform offers multiple ad mediums to brands to connect directly with the viewers.

S&S banner is a notable ad medium by Tata Play. The S&S banner appears on the screen every time the channel is swapped. It provides the advertisers an exclusive presence for a minimum of one hour - appearing on every channel swap. It also ensures an average of 35 million impressions delivered on any time band! Over time, many brands have come forward to reap benefits from its S&S banner ad medium. From Paytm to Realme and from Honda to Swiggy, brands across the spectrum have been leveraging this feature with great interest.

The ad medium also turned out to be very effective for the financial sector. For instance, The State Bank of India, which is known for its strategic marketing, collaborated with Tata Play in the festive season.

According to The State Bank Of India VP- media strategy & operations Shweta Sinha enhancing visibility and evoking recognition with a niche audience is an advantage that the bank eyes on while advertising on DTH. “For instance, Tata Play’s S&S banner is a great platform to inform consumers about a new product/service launch, with its clutter-free delivery of the brand message,” said Sinha.

The State Bank of India leveraged this feature for the Yono Shopping Festival which is targeted to a particular segment with superlative offers and discounts. “Advertising on Tata Play helped us to get a very high reach build up with effective results, making our campaign a success. At the same time, the S & S banner helped us to mark our presence in every DTH household. As our campaign was about a festive sale, we had a very crisp message to deliver- the date of sales and the discount offers, thereby S&S banner turned out as a best-suited platform for our campaign,” added Sinha.

Axis bank too collaborated with Tata Play to leverage the benefits of S&S banner medium. With this, it is quite evident that DTH advertising is significantly booming in the BFSI sector too.

Another brand, which rolled out its campaign on S&S banner said DTH was a perfect choice for the campaign, which was targeted to the Indian middle-class household who spends a significant amount of time watching television. “We rolled out the campaign at a time when the entire nation was under lockdown, and other advertising mediums like OOH became immaterial. We also realised that our targeted households spend two to three hours on television every day so we decided to not opt for any other medium and go with DTH,” said the brand's spokesperson.

DTH also provides ample advantages over other advertising mediums in terms of cost. The ad rates for advertising on other mediums are skyrocketing when compared to the advertising expenditures on a DTH service. Nayyar also feels that DTH will remain in the race, co-existing alongside other options.

As far as cable TV is concerned, which happens to be a direct competition to the DTH, operators like Tata Play offer audience measurement and monitoring, giving brands the confidence to invest ad money than cable.

Sharing her thoughts on the future of DTH Ad mediums, Nayyar said, studying and working from home is a new normal, as long as these phenomena are prevalent, the relevance of DTH will continue to rise at a high pace.

The time is now for the brands that have not yet taken the DTH route. As experts believe it to grow even bigger in the coming years, reap the benefits for your business.