According to its annual report for the year 2022-23, the telecom company spent Rs 284 crore on advertisement & business promotion
Indian mobile network operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) reduced its advertising, business promotion, and content costs by Rs 37.9 crore from Rs 979.1 crore in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022 to Rs 941. 2 crore in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023. This reduction was mostly due to a decrease in advertising and business promotion spending, the company said in its annual report for FY 2022-23.
In FY 2022-23, the company reduced its advertising and business promotion expenditure by 20.22% to Rs 284 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2023 against Rs 356 crore in the previous fiscal. While the content cost for the company increased by 5.47% to Rs 657.2 crore in FY23 compared to Rs 623.1 crore in FY22.
In the annual report, Vi mentioned that the company remains focused on strengthening its position in business services, especially the new and fast-growing segment of IoT and cloud services. The company launched several digital initiatives to address the changing requirements of today’s digital society enabling individuals and enterprises to get a range of benefits and value-adds.
During the year, the company also launched exciting propositions in various categories through digital offerings on platforms for Music, Videos, Gaming, Education & Jobs which are available on the Vi app as part of integrated access to its customers. All these incremental digital initiatives will improve revenue and profitability and subsequently strengthen the company’s overall competitive position and revenue in the longer run.
Talking about the marketing initiatives, the company said, “Building a competitive advantage by leveraging the open signal certification of being the fastest 4G in the country, the company had launched the #BestIsGettingBetter campaign – that showcases how we are on a continuous journey to improve our network in spite of being the best to help our customers get ahead in life and thrive. It showcased stories of our network engineers’ efforts to make the best better to reassert network superiority and the campaign was extensively promoted on TV & Digital.”
Vi also did a one-of-a-kind integration with Kaun Banega Crorepati- ‘KBC Golden Week with Vi’ giving Vi consumers to get a chance to sit in the coveted hot seat. Amitabh Bachchan’s video call to friends was also enabled through Vi.
With an objective to increase customer engagement and herald a new digital ecosystem, the company transitioned the Vi app into a super app, which now provides its customers with a repertoire of Movies, Shows and Live TV, Music, Games, Infotainment, Jobs and Education Services and more in addition to recharges, payments and managing their Vi account.
It also mentioned that with the objective of driving Data & Media monetization, Vi also commissioned its AI/ML-driven ad tech platform. Launched under the brand Ads, it offers advertisers unique audience segments, interest groups & targeting parameters and advertising opportunities across all telco-owned channels as well as 3rd party digital inventory under a single platform, thereby simplifying media buying, especially for SMBs.