Prior to the COVID-19 situation, the advertising industry had been under the spell of a thriving consistency where its growth forecast was estimated to be $865 billion USD by 2024. In 2019, the Indian advertising industry was at Rs 68,475 crore and was expected to grow by 10.9% to reach Rs 75,952 crore by 2020.

But the advertising spending witnessed a consequential fall with the onset of economic slowdown due to coronavirus. There has been halt in spending till the end of Q2 by 24% stakeholders with 46% delving towards adjusting the spend over the time period, as per the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

The immediate outcome pertaining to the disruption is that the advertisers need to reconstruct their campaigns to make it more bespoke oriented based on the shifting consumer behaviour. Owing to the sudden crisis, the advertisers are mainly focused on acquiring the customers while others are adapting to the changing marketing strategies.

According to the IAB data, with the coming in of the pandemic, 73% advertisers have either modified or developed new assets out of which 53% have robustly increased their messaging highlighting the company mission.

According to the Dentsu Aegis Network repot, throughout 2018 there was 26% increase in digital advertising with the overall advertising industry growing at the rate of 9.4%. The digital trends has undergone further popularity with the implementation of confinement measures which led to acceptance of digital content amongst consumers with alacrity. The orientation has massively shifted to in-home media as opposed to out-of home channels. There is unanimous surge in the use of social platforms and streaming services with gaming coming in as the new agency for growth in the league.

Owing to these factors advertisers are inclined towards prioritizing digital consumption where they can leverage on the escalating digital adoption and e-commerce. This modification will benefit the advertising ecosystem as it will garner direct response that brings out quick consumer purchases creating a favourable environment for those looking to drive sales.

The online shift has great potential for revenue generation as the digital platform has suffered less decline in reception as compared to other advertising medium. Establishing it to have enhanced crisis recovery prospective. In addition to this, it is backed up with the consumer behavioural data during the pandemic, giving it an edge over the other platforms where they are still struggling to comprehend the consumer inclination.

The widespread penetration of smartphones and tablets has disrupted the consumer’s attention pattern towards TV ads. Consequently, the Pay TV advertisement has undergone acute depression which is constantly exploring new opportunities to reach out to the Over-the-top providers for the ad distribution. Incidentally, grabbing the attention of large media companies who are expanding by investing on the OTT services which has been accelerated by COVID-19 situation as it complies with the growing consumer preference.

Moreover, post lockdown even if the out-of-home advertisement resumes, the perennially changing consumer behaviour will force them to adopt the digital trend. This has given the advertising industry a new scope for future growth. The prediction can be evaluated based on the report published by Economic Times which emphasises that social media accounts for the highest 28% share of the total amount spend on digital media advertising, contributing to a revenue of Rs 3,835 crore.

This is followed by paid search accounting to 23%, online video-22% and display media being vested with 21% investment. According to the report, by 2020 the display media, online video and social media is expected to have a faster growth rate.

Thus, it has been gauged that the pandemic has played a major role in shaping the advertising industry which has experienced intensive transformation. The revived industry has great scope for idea that is meant to pace up the transformation. Hence, the companies now struggling for survival, with the change in approach can take leverage of the situation and come up with new ways to build a brand.