Diwali brings cheers to media owners of Maharashtra Tier I & II cities

Although, media owners have been affected due to the impact of Covid19 and the firms have reported heavy losses but this Diwali festival seems to bring cheers to them. In conversations with Maharashtra-based Tier I & II media owners, Media4Growth found out that the demand, occupancy rate, media rates and clients’ responses are coming same as pre-Covid times.

“There is between 90% -95% occupancy rate in Aurangabad city with campaigns coming from agency side as well as direct clients. The ratio is 50:50 where all the clients are depending upon the outdoor medium for Diwali season,” shared Kamlesh Javeri, Owner, Upendra Publicity.

Where the jewelry and clothing local brands are demanding during Diwali festival in Aurangabad city, hospitals are utilising the medium for long-term campaigns.  

Manoj Kenge, Proprietor, Make Advertising, said, “Nashik market is taking a better shape with 90% occupancy rate where local clients are coming across as big investors in the medium. In fact, the new ruling on stamp duty has boosted investment from real estate clients where they are opting for long-term campaigns till December.”

Explaining reason behind the development, Manoj added, “The Covid19 spread is under control in Nashik as most people drive their personal vehicles instead of using public transport.”

Although there is high demand but media owners are facing challenges in terms of media rates. While Manoj is offering some marginal discount to his long-term clients, Kamlesh has totally denied the scope of providing any discounted price to cover the loss occurred in last seven months.

“Clients did approach us for 50% discounts, however, we denied for the same. Because of which, they have taken media at full rates and advance payment,” explained Kamlesh. “The response is positive however we will be satisfied only if we will be able to manage expenses. The current income is not sufficient to manage expenses such as license fee, rent of private sites and employees.”

Jalgaon based media owner, Ablycom is seeing a similar trend on the revival of the outdoor market. Prasad N. Jagtap, Owner, Ablycom, said, “Just like previous years, bookings have started in advance for the festive season. While, only between 30% and 40% are corporate clients, we have seen a majority of local clients take up outdoor media; occupying about 50% of the sites. In the month of October, we had only 20% vacancy with most of the local clients committing to long-term campaigns.”

Ablycom has clients from real-estate, banking, FMCG and healthcare segments. “It is a good news for us as only between 10% and 25% of the campaigns are short term. Sites for short-term campaigns have been live at usual rates without any discounts. Tier II cities can exercise this because the rates are not so high. INR 25/square feet is the average rate here which is quite affordable to all kinds of brands, both national and regional,” said Prasad N. Jagtap.  

It is learnt that sites of the sizes 20 ft x 10 ft and 20 ft x 20 ft have all been occupied and are in high demand at the moment as local and national brands look to capture ground.

In addition to this, the media owners are facing financial challenges from the authorities’ side which hasn’t provided any relief. “Even a few private landlords are supporting for rent waive off but it is only for lockdown period. Our billing has started after that but the business has started to come only during Diwali,” shared Kamlesh.