Union Budget 2023-24: Decoding Expectations Of Advertising & Marketing Sector

On 01 February 2023, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the union budget for the financial year 2023-24, an important budget ahead of the general elections in next year.

Amid the global recession, it is estimated that with this budget the Centre wants to achieve a deficit of 4.5 per cent by FY26. The government's focus on multi-sector growth is evident from the preliminary budget meetings. 

However, the financial budget is essential for the advertising and marketing sector as it enables the agencies to match marketing strategies with corporate objectives and direct funds to brand campaigns with the best returns on investment (Return on Investment).

Yulia Aslamova, Asia Head, DRIM Global said, "Union Budget 2022 focused majorly on digital and technology leading the Indian e-commerce market to reach USD 74.8 billion and a significant level of competition in the market. While the Budget 2023 is focused on growth, emerging industries and public investment."

Aslamova also said that despite the fears of inflation and recession globally, the demand for goods and services in India is growing.

As compared to last year— 

Considering the last year’s budget and this year’s focus, the expectations for the advertising and marketing sector is to grow at a steady rate.

“Since digitalisation and greening the economy seems to be the main focus, the marketing industry will see a pace in such sector. As we continue to grow technologically, it will be interesting to watch marketing penetrate into emerging sector like agri-tech, saas, crypto, etc. more than ever. We can expect a rise in marketing and advertising, irrespective of the impact on individual industry sector, as the focus on the digital economy stays high,” opined Bhavishya Bhan, Co-founder, BlueBeans.

Investment in the advertising and marketing sector is anticipated to result from the thriving start-up culture. A transparent and inclusive blockchain and emerging technology policy could aid in the globalisation of the economy.

Impact on modern marketing trends— 

In terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PP) and consumption rate, our economy is expanding. However, there is a good likelihood of seeing a rise in the number of companies vying for that desirable spot in a potential customer's cart.

These days, more and more clients can recognise them as producers and the market is estimated to be worth USD 16.4 billion. Expecting any reduction of TDS for small creators, which will improve their in-hand pay-out, wouldn't be asking too much.

Adding to this, Sumit Gupta, Founder, Viral Pitch said, “I can also see the surge of AR/VR and Metaverse-oriented campaigns. With YouTube shorts, as creators will become eligible to apply to YouTube’s Partner Program and get monetised, this is the time when the budget can also emphasize boosting technological enablement to execute creators-led campaigns. This will prove to be a remarkable step in the direction of empowering creators and accelerating brands alike.”

The Indian advertising and marketing sector is expected to develop significantly among important markets at a rate of 14.7 per cent in 2023, according to trade analysts. 

However, as per the GroupM projections, the growth of TV-based commercials will increase from 10.8 per cent in 2022 to 13.8 in the following year. The same was said to apply to digital advertising, where growth was predicted to increase to 21 per cent from 17.3 per cent.

“A marketing budget outlines all the money a business intends to spend on marketing-related projects over the quarter or year. Major digital marketing brands in the country have started to plan and allocate their finances towards paid advertising, sponsored web content, a registered blog domain, marketing automation software, etc. in hopes to accomplish new campaign marketing goals in the n year. Budget 2023 is expected to work wonders for the ecosystem of advertising and marketing in India,” shared Mukesh Vij, Founder, Hashtag Orange.

Meanwhile, according to recent market statistics, 32 per cent of businesses plan to increase their organic social media budgets in the upcoming year to improve their public outreach, while 83 per cent of businesses plan to increase their content production budgets to raise their game when it comes to content creation.