14 WhatsApp groups now outweigh TRP in festive India

As BARC and television ratings remain stuck in measurement disputes, India’s festive shoppers have quietly moved to a different kind of panel—the family, society and kitty-party groups on their phones. In a 19 October 2026 essay for ET Brand Equity, Dr Sandeep Goyal and Carol Goyal close their festive season series with a simple argument: what they call the WhatsApp Rating Point, or WRP, now counts for more than a TRP.

The numbers are stark. The authors estimate the average Indian belongs to at least 14 WhatsApp groups, from office and apartment groups to gym, alumni and long-dormant cousin chats. Each group is a tiny, always-on rating meter. In one example, a 76-year-old who has muted television ads for 15 years bought a new air fryer because a kitty-party member vouched for it. The personal endorsement outweighed the celebrity-led media spend.

Why a WhatsApp Rating Point outperforms a TRP

Television ratings measure exposure—what people were shown. A WRP captures something closer to intent: what people believed, asked about and bought. The journey is no longer a clean awareness-to-purchase funnel. It runs: see the ad, ignore it, ask a group, get a recommendation, buy, then forward the review.

The authors describe a rough group prime time. Mornings belong to forwarded greetings and health claims; afternoons become free consumer research on shopping links; evening food-safety videos can freeze an entire local category overnight; late nights are when college groups settle jobs, investments and relationships. Every group also has its anchors—a serial forwarder, a deal spotter, a silent admin and a resident fact-checker—who hold outsized sway over what the group buys.

• Earned beats paid: Reach can be bought, but a sister-in-law’s recommendation cannot.
• Belief beats exposure: People discount paid faces and trust known members with no landing-page incentive.
• Multiplication beats decay: A TV spot fades; one forwarded message travels from group to group.
• Scale beats sample: A metered panel is tiny next to hundreds of millions of active group members.

What brands should do with WRP

The practical shift is to design for forwarding, not just viewing. Instead of a 30-second film, the authors argue for a 15-second demonstration clip clear enough that an auntie or group admin wants to share it unprompted. The test is whether the work survives the question “anyone used this?” in a group.

Trust also migrates to local anchors. A society president who endorses a water purifier may convert more nearby buyers than a celebrity. And because a single “my cousin got food poisoning” warning can undo a strong television rating in minutes, brands should ask media planners a new question: how many WhatsApp groups are talking about us without being paid?

Underneath the group-chat humour is a familiar persuasion principle. We copy the choices of people we consider similar to ourselves, and WhatsApp makes those people instantly available. That is social proof with distribution built in—and this festive season, it may be the only rating that truly rates.

Source: ETBrandEquity.com