Social ads rule television, print space
Govt Ads Top Charts In TV; Cars, FMCG & Realty Cos Bet On Print ……….Ratna Bhushan & Joji Thomas Philip NEW DELHI
SOCIAL advertising, besides FMCG and telecom companies, beat the slowdown blues to emerge as the countrys top television advertising categories in the first two months of 2009, as per data collated by media tracking firm TAM AdEx. Among individual firms, Hindustan Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, GlaxoSmithKline, Bharti Airtel and Cadbury were the top five advertisers by volumes (seconds spent advertising) on TV.
Government-led social ads topped the charts for television advertising, followed by marketers of grocery, cellphone service providers and colas. Life insurance and cars, too, were among the top ten. In the print category too, social ads took the top slot. But in print, the other prominent advertisers were educational institutions, cars, retailers and real estate firms.
Industry estimates suggest that of the Rs 22,000 crore annual spending on advertising in the country across all mediums, print and television make up for the lions share, accounting for Rs 18,500 crore worth of ad-spends. The remaining Rs 3,500 crore is through smaller media like radio and internet.
Tam Media research CEO LV Krishnan said: Ad spends by the government have risen significantly over the last year. Top spenders within FMCG have remained, by and large, the same. In the case of telecom service providers, there has been a shift, though spends have been maintained.
Television advertising in FMCG has been riding on the back of increased brand promotions, preventing consumers from downtrading, heightened competition, newer products and packs, and up to 20% growth in rural markets.
GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH), ranked third in terms of ad-spend volumes, EVP-marketing Shubhajit Sen said: Our ad spend levels have gone up this quarter. We are not only running campaigns for new launches like Horlicks NutriBar, but also increasing spends on flagship Horlicks because the quarter coincides with school exams. We will continue to invest in brands.
As for cellphone service providers, ad-spends are being maintained to address high growth. In January, the country created a global record by adding 15 million new users in a single month. India, the worlds fastest growing mobile market, has been witnessing the highest subscriber additions globally every month for over a year now.
Bharti Airtel has been consistently refreshing its advertising. Over the last two months, the telecom giant has been driving home campaigns of its network and lifetime prepaid offering. According to Bharti Airtel CMO Sanjay Gupta: In times of recession, it is important for brands to maintain their salience and convey relevant information to customers.