Circa 2004: The year when small became big

Elections, cricket, a number of political and social upheavals marked the year 2004. Naturally, the ripples were felt in the Rs 12,000-crore advertising industry, which touched a record two-digit growth rate of 13.5 per cent, as opposed to the 9.5 per cent in 2003 and 8.9 per cent in 2002.

The growth was spearheaded by a host of emergent categories that made their presence felt across both print and television (spread across news, regional, infotainment, niche, music and English movie channels) making it to the top five list.

According to data available with AdEx India, educational institutes (e.g. Rai University, Amity and IIPM, besides a number of coaching centres and vocational training institutes) and corporate brand image campaigns (e.g. HP, Tata, Peerless and Finolex) hogged much of the ad pie in 2004 (January-September), with the former preferring print over television and the latter gunning for the news channels. The other inclusions in the top five list were milk beverages, mosquito repellents (in the top five for children's channels) and lubricants.

Advertisements continued to focus on scrubbing and cleaning as toilet soaps, washing powders and toothpastes remained in the top five list on television. As did cellphone marketers and service providers. But interestingly, fairness creams are no longer in the top five this year.

The top advertisers on television this year were HLL (which also advertised heavily on radio), P&G, Paras Pharmaceuticals, Reckitt Benckiser and a very aggressive Dabur, which has butted out Colgate from the fifth slot in 2004.

In print, Maruti displaced Hyundai from the top position, while Tata Motors dislodged Hero Honda from the fifth slot. ITC, which was the fourth biggest spender on print last year, has slipped with the ban on tobacco advertising.

What is most interesting is the spectacular rise of independent retailers and their

preference of television over print as a medium. The category recorded a growth of more than 200 per cent between 2000 and 2003, with an average jump of 13 per cent in TV ad spend this year. The favorite haunts of these pan masala, gutkha, hosiery and retail chain advertisers are the host of news channels, which had an eventful year in 2004.

And for those, who turn up their noses at its creative, PP Design Estate dominated television advertising in its category, with a staggering 50 per cent share, while Pantaloons dominated print with a 20 per cent share.

"New advertisers have a pronounced bias towards television. Some other categories to look out for would include life insurance and IPO," remarks an industry expert. In fact, IPO as a category moved up from the 81st position in 2003 to an impressive 30th this year. That, of course, is linked to the boom in the stockmarkets.

© 2004 agencyfaqs!