Four major language news dailies in each of the four South Indian states have put together the South Premium Publishers digital advertising platform. Their newly launched SPP offers the digital media of Dinamalar in Tamil, Eenadu in Telugu, Manorama in Malayalam, and Prajavani in Kannada with a single digital advertising plan and package to reach premium digital users in one of the most vibrant news consuming regions in the world.
With a reach of 37 million unique visitors and 715 million page views, and an average time spent on the news sites from 3.36 to 8.09 minutes, the four news organizations have combined their digital marketing and sales efforts. They seem to have understood that the best way to monetize their growing digital audiences is to collectively sell the digital possibilities to brand owners and advertising planners.
The SPP news platforms’ combined audiences include 73% in the 18 to 44 age group, from young consumers to high net worth individuals (HNIs) whose primary source is digital news. As reported by Exchange4Media, the SPP digital advertising package delivers a stunning three billion ad impressions each month. (Source: GA report, Combined Monthly Average, April 2020 – September 2020). The newly launched consortium website, www.southpremiumpublishers.com, contains the relevant information.
Mariam Mammen Mathew, the CEO of Manorama Online, the Malayalam news platform, says, “South Premium Publishers offers advertisers credibility, digital brand safety, and increased awareness, with more control and ease of access to premium digital inventory from all major publishers of South India. This is the only premium digital publishers’ network that delivers. At Manorama Online, we are happy to be part of this pioneering platform in Indian Digital Publishing.”
While SPP’s single digital advertising package offers what is claimed to be “a robust value proposition which makes a good business sense for the advertiser,” each advertiser will get a customized digital ad solution based on each of the digital news platform’s reach and performance. The idea is to target and leverage a compelling value proposition with a single release order.
Single digital ad package with a single release order
“We are the market leader in the Tamil digital market,” says L Adimoolam, director of Business and Technical of Tamil daily Dinamalar and its digital platform. “In 2019-20, of the total Indian ad market of more than Rs 70,000 crore, 21% has been contributed by digital. Given the current digital growth prospects, its important that we give the best and the most convenient platform to the advertisers and agencies to connect with South Indian digital audiences.”
Arpan Chatterjee, COO – Digital of The Printers Mysore, publishers of Kannada daily Prajavani and Prajavani.net, said, “South Premium Publishers has its own uniqueness in enabling advertisers to target quality digital audience across South India through a single interface for brand and content campaigns. With more than three billion ad impressions every month to a very engaged audience in their own language, it is a strong value proposition from SPP. Prajavani is glad to be a part of SPP.”
The combined SPP digital ad platform offers flexible advertising packages with sales support across India providing a media mix with CPD/CPM options. Digital advertisers can choose from roadblock ads, display banner ads, and native advertising to reach their target groups. Speaking about the fundamental idea behind launching the alliance and combined digital ad platform, I Venkat, director of Telugu news daily, Eenadu says, “Our group is known for value creation and value innovation. This combination is a step towards creating value for our esteemed digital advertisers. We need to recognize that the market dynamics are evolving, which demands innovation in our existing business model, and collaboration is one of the solutions. This combination will help advertisers to reach out to Southern Indian premium digital audiences in a very credible, secure, and highly engaged environment.”
It is about time that the Indian news platforms confront the digital opportunity more seriously for subscriptions and digital advertising, especially after their digital investments for more than two decades. Digital advertising is still new. The most comfortable paradigm so far has been to surrender to the big tech companies. The revenue share is not commensurate with the cost of news gathering, publishing, and reaching one of the most enthusiastic and tech-savvy audiences in the world. The four South Indian language newspapers, each a strong brand in its own right, have grasped that this is an opportunity that will require combined investment, creativity, and learning.
