NEW DELHI: The ongoing economic and social implications of the Covid2019 pandemic and lockdown induced by it have prompted every advertiser in the country to rework its strategies. The media mixes are being realigned and the ad spends are being controlled in a big way. In a recent virtual roundtable called “Survival At Its Best”, hosted by Indiantelevision.com with several big advertisers and agencies, Dabur India head of media Rajiv Dubey shed light on how his firm, which is one of the biggest advertisers in the country, is managing the situation.
Dubey highlighted that Dabur was quite proactive in its approach to handle the situation from a marketing perspective and was ready with a roadmap by the mid of March. However, it did not foresee the rise of Doordarshan the way it has been.
“We were pretty prepared with our strategies when it came to what media channels will work or not work by mid of March. But Doordarshan came out of the syllabus," he said.
As per BARC-Nielsen data for week 15, advertiser count for Ramayana grew from three to 42, since it started airing.
However, Dabur is now actively seeking partnership opportunities with the channel. It has already started advertising heavily on Mahabharat (which airs on DD Bharti) and is in talks with the public broadcaster to sponsor at least one of its show. The brand is also exploring opportunities on DD Retro.
Currently, Dabur is investing most of its media monies on news channels and digital platforms. Dubey further revealed that while TV still dominates the pie, Dabur has doubled its digital spends.
When prodded if he would increase the digital spends further, given its meteoric rise in these times, Dubey showed reluctancy.
“Television is still delivering. It grew by 40 per cent. The percentage increase in digital hasn’t been that much. We are there on digital news and some OTT platforms. We have to be wherever the audience is.”
He also added that he was not expecting the print industry to take such a big hit. The company had always had a strong print presence, which now has been impacted because of the difficulty in deliveries. “Online numbers can’t be accredited by any source right now. We can’t know how many people are getting digital copies of the papers,” he said.
Apart from communication, Dubey is also relying on special product launches to sail through.
“While regular new launches of our product portfolio have been a challenge like it has been for almost every major company, we are thinking of launching some special products in the coming weeks. For example, we studied the demand for sanitizers going up in the market and started production in a big way in the month of February. We are expecting to come back quickly and in a big way with launches," he added.
Asked if it is the right time to come with new launches, he replied, “Relevant launches which can help people like disinfectants will surely work.”
