New Delhi: Every product category has been hit in 2020 by the pandemic and lockdowns. The sales for most of these product, categories got impacted as people were restricted to their homes and were reluctant in spending money even after the lockdowns were over.
Initially, the advertising volumes of many such categories was also hit but soon it started reviving as marketing heads realised that it is not the time to stop but to be even more aggressive if they wanted to make the best out of this year.
Automobile is one such category that was affected. Most brands did not make a sale of a single unit in the lockdown period (excluding exports). However, once the lockdown was lifted, the brands started opening up their showrooms and retail experience centers and started inviting customers to come and sample their product.
Initially, the response of audiences was slow but digital marketing came to the rescue as many of these brands created a virtual experience of their product and created enough content around it for the customer to research and find information that he/she was looking for.
The auto sector is back to advertising as the economy picks up steam and people step up the purchase of vehicles.#BARCIndia #WhatIndiaWatches #AutoSector #AdVolumes #Vehicles #Economy #Advertising pic.twitter.com/bMHWHvICZG
— BARCIndia (@BARCIndia) December 4, 2020
Slowly, the customers also started returning to the retail centers. And, if we go by the festive season reports, the sales for several of two-wheeler and four-wheeler brands have increased. These reports have induced a lot of positivity in the industry and a lot of it has also come from the massive advertising campaigns taken by the brands across national and regional channels.
Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has released a report comparing the ad volumes and share of the automobile industry for 2019 and 2020 between 1 Oct and 27 Nov (festive season).
Four Wheeler category tops the auto sector with a 2 fold increase in Ad volumes.#BARCIndia #WhatIndiaWatches #AutoSector #AdVolumes #Vehicles #Cars #FourWheeler #Economy #Advertising pic.twitter.com/vbD218ASQ1
— BARCIndia (@BARCIndia) December 4, 2020
The report states that the ad volumes for the automobile sector have grown by 36 per cent in 2020. In 2019, the total advertising done during this period was around 9.3 million seconds which grew to 12.6 million seconds in 2020.
Also, the ad volumes for four-wheelers have increased by two times. In 2019, there were approximately 2.39 million seconds of advertising while in 2020, there have been more than 5.86 million seconds of advertising. The ad volume share has also increased from 26 per cent to 46 per cent in the last year.
It will be interesting to see if the industry can carry forward this momentum and continue selling the products.
