2024 will most likely be the first year in many years as one that is going to be built on a stable base, said Ashwin Padmanabhan, President - Investments, Trading and Partnerships, GroupM – India. He was speaking at the release of GroupM India’s annual This Year Next Year (TYNY) report.

As per the report, the overall ad revenue is expected to reach Rs 1,55,386 crore in 2024, with an incremental Rs 14,423 crore compared to 2023.

Padmanabhan noted that 2024 will be the fourth year in a row that would not see huge fluctuations across quarters. “From 2020, we had been facing one half going up and the second half going down. 2023 was equally bad every month because of our expectations. In the beginning of 2023, we were coming off a tough second half in 2022. Compared to 2022’s first half, the 2023 first half was a dramatic drop. In absolute terms across 2023, there was growth in a stable manner. 2023 was a good base to build on. Hence, we can expect growth in 2024 for sure.”

Another trend, Padmanabhan shared, was the shift in the way consumers are looking and consuming content. He said ConnectedTV was a “nice thing to do” in 2022 and by the end of 2023 it is “surely something you can't ignore”. “It is a new way of watching TV and it's bringing in a lot of audiences. We have seen brands continuing to invest behind that and increase their investment to reach new audiences.”

He also shared that 2023 will see the growth of retail media, which is driven by commerce - whether it is advertising on quick commerce, working on data, or enrichment with a quick commerce platform. Retail media and data driven by retail media will power a lot of spends in 2024, and that's going to grow phenomenally.

Speaking on IPL this year, Padmanabhan was optimistic that the league will witness growth this year as well. “IPL is a very big spike that we always see. Last year both players didn't have enough time to excite brands since everything happened last minute. Hence, whatever they could they did. I see 2024 will be a growth year for IPL.”

While speaking on the upcoming elections, he shared that the elections would bring in a lot of local SME advertisers as well, and not just large brands.

Another trend he highlighted was start-ups, which had completely gone off advertising for almost 18 months, have started coming back. He explained that their expenses in the previous cycle was driven by funding, and they went overhead. “Their whole mantra was to get as many new customers at whatever cost, it does not matter.” In 2022, they decided to service existing customers profitably. "They have reached a stage where their books are more or less clean. Now their advertising is about sustenance, and not about unprofitable acquisition of customers.”