MAM
Digital suffers due to lack of common metric system: Ashish Bhasin
MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network, one of the biggest marketing agencies in India, released the third edition of its annual Digital Report recently predicting a wholesome 31.96 per cent CAGR growth of digital advertising in India. An exhausting and thoroughly researched report, this initiative by DAN is probably the singular attempt being made by any agency in India. Therefore, it was definitely a proud moment for Ashish Bhasin, the chairman and chief executive officer for DAN South Asia. In an exclusive conversation with Indiantelevision.com, Bhasin reveals how working on this report serves the larger goal of maintaining a leading position in the market and how other marketers can learn from the insights revealed.
Talking about the launch, Ashish Bhasin proudly says, "We are very excited and very happy with the way the whole report has come out. What's very clear to us at DAN is that there is no business that is not going to be affected by digital. And as leaders of digital communication and advertising in India, we see it as our responsibility to make sure that authentic research on that is available, which, unfortunately, has not been revealed in India so far."
Bhasin is of the view that creating such reports serve the dual purpose of driving the cumulative growth of the digital ecosphere as well as preparing the team within the agency for opportunities and challenges forward. He notes, "We forecast the trends and lead the markets towards those trends. Now, that we know what the market is thinking and what our clients are aspiring, we have already started building capabilities in those areas which other agencies haven't even thought of."
The report reveals a number of key marketing trends that will rule the digital industry in the coming years. Most important of them being the three Vs – voice, vernacular, and video. As far as the voice part is concerned, DAN made a fine move by launching the report on Google's voice assistant Alexa. Video is already a stronghold for the agency as many of its campaigns have already been bringing national and international honours.
Asserting on the need for viable vernacular content, Bhasin shares, "In the next few years, around 200 to 300 million more people are going to be on the internet. Now, from these, very few will be coming from the metropolitan cities as the penetration there is very good. The people will be joining from tier 2 and tier 3 cities, all the way down from rural areas."
But not many agencies are creating vernacular advertisements. "At best, they take a Hindi or English ad and translate it into other languages. That might be better than putting an English ad into a vernacular setting but it is not good enough. You have to start building the ability to create advertisements in local languages because that's where your audiences are."
Bhasin also lauds the effort of the Indian government in starting initiatives that are augmenting this influx of larger population on digital platforms. He says, "I think digital is going to be key to governance, forget anything else and thus, the infrastructure for digital needs to be created and administered by the government. At the moment, there are between 400 and 450 million Indians who are on the internet. This is a large number but the more exciting part to me is that in the next two to three years we are probably going to see something like 200 to 300 million more people coming on to the internet. And that can be possible only if the government helps put up the right infrastructure, which they have been very good at so far."
While the pouring in of new online customers is a positive sign, the digital ecosphere still faces the absence of a unified metric system to measure and evaluate the impact of online content. Sharing his thoughts, Bhasin elaborates, "I think that is the single biggest problem that digital advertising in India faces today. For a medium that is so measurable, we don't have an agreed common metric like Broadcast Audience Research Council is for television. The medium suffers because of that. If we are to get that right, I think that will make a huge difference."
However, he is optimistic that this challenge will eventually be solved. He says, "We need to have common industry-accepted viewership parameters and I am hopeful that these metrics in the next couple of years will be in place. I believe that in the next two years, as an industry, we collectively will evolve a common metric system as not having that is a big disadvantage."
MAM
India’s financial sector spent less on TV ads in 2025 but flooded the internet
Banks, insurers and lenders cut tv ads as digital jumps, LIC and Muthoot lead tv and Axis Bank tops online
MUMBAI: India’s banking, financial services and insurance sector, one of the most prolific advertisers in the country, delivered a split verdict on media in 2025. It spent less on television, held its nerve in print, turned up the volume on radio and deluged the internet with a ferocity that left every other medium looking pedestrian. The picture that emerges from TAM AdEx’s cross-media report for the BFSI sector is of an industry in transition, still wedded to the news bulletin but increasingly seduced by the algorithm.
Television: a retreat with caveats
TV ad volumes for the BFSI sector fell 16 per cent in 2025 compared with 2024, a sharp reversal after two years of consistent growth that had pushed volumes 16 per cent above 2021 levels by 2023 and a further 7 per cent higher by 2024. Within 2025 itself, the drop was concentrated in the middle of the year: the second and third quarters saw ad volumes slide 35 per cent each against the first quarter, with a partial recovery of 13 per cent in the fourth.
The retreat did not reshuffle the deck. Life insurance retained first place among TV categories with 19 per cent of ad volumes, mortgage loans held second with 16 per cent, and the top ten categories together accounted for 82 per cent of all BFSI television advertising. The dominance of news channels was equally pronounced: news claimed 68 per cent of ad volumes, general entertainment channels a distant 14 per cent and movies 12 per cent. Together, news and GEC captured 82 per cent of the sector’s television spend. News bulletins alone took 48 per cent of programme-genre volumes, with feature films second at 12 per cent. Prime time, between 6pm and 11pm, drew 34 per cent of ad volumes, followed by afternoon at 22 per cent and morning at 20 per cent. A full 82 per cent of all ads ran between 20 and 40 seconds.
Life Insurance Corporation of India was the sector’s biggest TV spender with 11 per cent of ad volumes. Muthoot Financial Enterprises came second with 9 per cent, followed by National Payments Corporation of India at 6 per cent, Tata AIG General Insurance at 5 per cent and State Bank of India at 5 per cent. The top ten advertisers together accounted for 51 per cent of total TV volumes. Three names were new to the top ten in 2025: Tata AIG General Insurance, IIFL Finance and Tata Capital. At brand level, Muthoot Finance Loan Against Gold led with 9 per cent share, Tata AIG Health Insurance entered the top ten for the first time, and the top ten brands together contributed 35 per cent of ad volumes.
Print: the long climb continues
Print told a different story. Ad space for the BFSI sector has grown every year since 2021, rising 16 per cent in 2022, 30 per cent in 2023, 51 per cent in 2024 and 64 per cent in 2025, all measured against a 2021 baseline. Within 2025, ad space was flat in the second quarter but surged 46 per cent in the third and 33 per cent in the fourth compared with the first. Life insurance led print categories with 21 per cent of ad space, followed by mutual funds and banking services and products at 13 per cent each, and corporate financial institutes at 11 per cent. The top ten categories together took 82 per cent of print ad space. LIC led print advertisers with 6 per cent share, and the top ten together covered just 19 per cent of ad space, a reflection of how fragmented print spending remains. Three new entrants joined the top ten in 2025, with Billion Brains Garage Ventures the only exclusive presence not seen in 2024’s list. In the top ten brands, LIC dominated with a 2 per cent share, while Nippon India Mutual Fund rose to third position from fourth in 2024. English accounted for 62 per cent of print ad space, Hindi for 20 per cent. Business and finance publications took 59 per cent of the genre split. The south zone led regional spending with 33 per cent of print ad space, Bangalore topping that zone, while New Delhi and Mumbai were the leading cities nationally.
Radio: louder than ever
Radio ad volumes for the BFSI sector have climbed steadily, rising 12 per cent above 2021 levels in 2023, 36 per cent in 2024 and 45 per cent in 2025. The quarterly pattern within 2025 was volatile: a sharp drop of 43 per cent in the second quarter and 42 per cent in the third, followed by a near-full recovery in the fourth. Life insurance led radio categories with 22 per cent of volumes, banking services and products second at 14 per cent and corporate NBFCs third at 11 per cent. LIC of India held its position as the leading radio advertiser with 20 per cent of ad volumes; the top ten radio advertisers together covered 69 per cent. Muthoot Financial Enterprises led radio brands with 10 per cent share, five of the top ten brands belonged to LIC alone, and SBI Mutual Fund made a remarkable leap to fifth position from 272nd in 2024. Evening and morning time-bands together captured 84 per cent of radio ad volumes, with evenings at 44 per cent and mornings at 40 per cent. Maharashtra was the leading state for radio BFSI advertising with 18 per cent share; Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh together accounted for 43 per cent.
Digital: the five-times surge
If one number defines the 2025 BFSI advertising story, it is five. Digital ad impressions for the sector multiplied fivefold between 2021 and 2025, having already doubled in 2023 and doubled again in 2024 before the 2025 leap. Within the year, impressions dipped 19 per cent in the second quarter and 12 per cent in the third before recovering 8 per cent above the first quarter by the fourth. Banking services and products led digital categories with 27 per cent of impressions, life insurance and credit cards tied at 19 per cent each, and securities and sharebroking organisations fell from first place in 2024 to fourth in 2025. Axis Bank was the runaway leader among digital advertisers with 12 per cent of impressions, followed by ICICI Bank at 9 per cent, IDFC First Bank at 7 per cent and Kotak Mahindra Bank at 6 per cent. The top ten digital advertisers covered 59 per cent of impressions, and seven of them were new entrants compared with 2024, signalling rapid churn in the digital spending hierarchy. At brand level, Axis Bank led with 9 per cent, ICICI HPCL Super Saver Credit Card vaulted to third place from 921st in 2024, and six of the top ten digital brands were new to the list. Programmatic buying accounted for 91 per cent of all digital BFSI transactions; combined with ad networks, it captured 96 per cent.
The data from TAM AdEx paints the portrait of a sector that still believes in the power of the television news bulletin to sell insurance to the masses, but increasingly knows that the next generation of borrowers, investors and cardholders is scrolling, not watching. The race is now on to reach them before the algorithm serves up someone else’s loan offer first.
