Amidst numerous challenges like the semi-conductor supply crunch and post-pandemic sale slump, 2023 saw the automotive sector resurrect and rise again.

According to data revealed by Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), the entire calendar year of 2023 demonstrated significant growth, with an overall increase of 11 per cent YoY. Growth was recorded across all segments: two-wheeler grew by 9.5 percent, three-wheeler by 58.5 percent, passenger vehicle by 11 percent, tractors by seven percent and commercial vehicle by eight percent.

This encouraging growth in auto sales is expected to push automakers to increase their marketing and advertising budgets in the coming quarters.

Maruti’s overall advertisement budget is Rs 1000-plus crore, spread across different funnel stages for the coming year, shared Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki India.

As for Manav Sethi, Head-Media Martech & Growth, Emerging Mobility Business Unit, Hero MotoCorp, the company sees an upward of Rs 200 crore set aside as ad spends, which translates to an approximate 25 per cent growth in their AdEx budget for 2024.

Meanwhile, Nissan India’s Director - Marketing, Product and Customer Experience, Mohan Wilson, also highlighted that there will be a 20-30 per cent growth in advertising spends compared to the previous year with the focus being on digital media.

Stronger on Print & Digital? 

Celebratory car sales pushed automakers to be aggressive on all advertising mediums. But a look at industry numbers show that auto ad spends have been stronger on digital and print mediums.

TAM AdEX revealed that in the July-September quarter of 2023, cars were the most advertised category on print, taking up nearly 7 per cent of ad space. Brands like Maruti Suzuki, Hero Motocorp and Kia were among the top 10 advertisers across categories all through January to September.

Print advertising still holds significance for auto advertisers, shared Alok Sanwal, Vice President of Jagran Prakashan. He believes that advertising for all products must rely upon emotions or rational. “Auto is a category which has a very strong rational buying. The interested consumer wants to get smaller information like the CC, the capacity and the other set of features. Hence, print has always been the preferred choice for the auto sector.”

Speaking from the advertiser’s perspective, Wilson opines that print has always been very important for them from a media viewpoint. Even though, in the age of digitalisation, the role of print is shifting, it still holds importance since there is a particular level of reach that one can only do via print, he said.

“That too regional print is even more important because sometimes you need to go very targeted in terms of addressing regional audiences,” said Wilson.

For Hero Motocorp, Print should corner the lion’s chunk amongst all mediums in 2024 too.

Maruti’s Shashank Srivastava believes print offers targeted engagement, allowing advertisers to connect with specific demographics and tailor their message for local markets. “This makes print an irreplaceable asset in our media mix, currently commanding roughly 25 per cent of our advertising budget.”

It is also to be noted that the digital medium witnessed a significant growth of 73 per cent in ad impressions in Jan-Jun ’23 over Jan-Jun ’22 (TAM).

“In fact, we talk about digital first. And then we see how print can fit in, how print can support the media strategy, while now the main creative, the messaging, the media strategy is digital first, and then print is a supporting element to gain traction in terms of reach,” added Wilson.

Spending on digital media is growing and is almost in the vicinity of television spends across the auto industry at around 26 per cent of the overall media budget, revealed Srivastava.

For Nissan, digital is in the range of 40-50 per cent on the total media mix followed by print, radio and OOH. Digital is the number one priority, then print by approximately 30-40 per cent.

Srivastava said, “With digital platforms receiving widespread adoption, we can see the auto industry spending more on digital platforms than before. We expect digital expenditure to grow at a faster rate than TV with the latter itself poised to grow at a close to double-digit number.”

Top auto marketing trends for 2024 

One of the hottest trends in the auto sector’s marketing and advertising will be the direct-to-consumer strategy that will enable OEMs (Original equipment manufacturer) to own and manage end buyers directly.

Further, hyper-local digital advertising will be utilised more for targeted demand generation, as per Sethi. "This will enable more options for experiential marketing,  enable digital as a medium of communication at scale, foster personalised experiences of communication which will further re-define how brands are built and sustained."

Srivastava added to this, “AI and Machine Learning (ML) technologies will be used to analyse consumer data and behaviour, enabling OEMs to create experiences tailored to individual preferences.”

“Influencer marketing will also gain prominence this year and brands will seek to collaborate with influencers to drive desired messaging,” explained Srivastava.

Further, he also foresees more marketing and advertising strategies around sustainability, nudging customers towards cleaner mobility options such as EVs, hybrids, flex-fuels, and CNG.

Wilson thinks a lot more goes and will go into using data as an enabler to engage with customers. “Hence, we use a lot of data insights in the form of tools to identify key audiences across the regions. This allows us to have a very granular view and reach the audience at the right time with the right message.”

Shorter video formats on digital platforms will help augment long-format content on TV, Sethi shared.

Lastly, Generative AI will contribute to a lot of creative or copy ideas across key languages and martech automation will take place at scale, industry leaders opined.