Election campaigns give ad industry a shot in the arm
KATHMANDU, Nov 26:
Advertising agencies have reported 30-40 percent growth in revenue over the three months starting mid-September thanks to the festive season and the Constituent Assembly (CA) election.
With the healthy rise in revenue, the advertising industry is optimistic about posting growth in 2013/14. The industry had seen its revenue go down by around 40 percent in the last fiscal year.
Though the festive schemes lasted till Tihar, the Constituent Assembly (CA) election campaigns have kept most of the advertising agencies busy.
“Election campaigns of different political parties kept cash register of advertising agencies ticking over even after the end of the festive season,” Raj Kumar Bhattarai, president of Advertising Agencies of Nepal (AAN) said. “Election campaigns of political parties started right after the Dashain festival and continued till three days before the election which was held on November 19.”
According to Bhattarai, television received the highest volume of election related advertisement followed by print media and radio.
Most of the election campaigns were focused on TV as it is easier to make the people aware with the help and audio/visual means. It is not possible to make newspapers available all over the country, advertising entrepreneurs say.
Print media is the most popular advertising platform in the country and accounts for around 50 percent of total advertising revenue.
An estimated Rs 250-300 million was spent on media campaigns to educate and create awareness about election among voters.
The Election Commission (EC) alone allocated around Rs 150 million for production, publication and dissemination of information and message related to voters´ education for about a month. The election campaigns kept around 66 advertising agencies busy for about a month right after the Dashain festival.
“Voters education campaign of the Election Commission was one of the largest media campaigns launched this year,” Umang Shakya, CEO of Outreach Nepal, told Republica. “Also some development partners invested significant amount of money to make the election a grand success.”
Besides election, real estate companies, suppliers and manufacturers of construction materials, distributors of electrical and home appliances, automobiles, mobile and gadget spent significant amount of money on festive campaigns this year, according to advertisers.
“The advertising market has been growing after Dashain. The success of CA election has made positive impact on public, business houses and the investors; and we are hopeful that the market size will continue to increase,” Sudip Thapa, managing director of ANS Creation, told Republica.
“We are hopeful that the stable political situation will bring confidence in business houses and investors to invest in new products and campaigns which will definitely increase the revenue of the industry in the days to come.”
Source: Republica
