Soaps and corporate campaigns dominate festive spends on TV: TAM ADEX

The cash register starts ringing for most companies during the festive season. No disputing that. This also means a larger outlay on advertising and promo-related activities for most companies. Going by a recent analysis of seven-year trends by TAM ADEX, almost 30-35 per cent of press display revenue is earned during the festive season.

So how has the festive in 2002 been? Which are the product categories that kept their advertising pressure up? Here are some highlights from a recent study by the television and press monitoring agency focusing on the festive months in the year 2002.

TV spends studied for September to November 2002 versus the same period in 2001 (as explained in Figure 1) show that toilet soaps retain their leadership position. This was despite the fact that there was only a nominal 5 per cent increase in their overall spends in the same period last year.

What is most surprising is that corporate advertising has shot up 63 per cent in terms of TV spends and displaced three other sectors before it (moving up to the No 2 position in 2002, from being No 5 in 2001). Interestingly a whole bunch of new corporate players have loosened their purse strings rather than a specific product/brand going for the big splurge. Among the top corporate advertisers in Festive 2002 were Whirlpool, Britannia, Samsung and Allianz.

According to TAM ADEX, three new product categories have joined the ranks of Festive TV Top 10. Paints, rubs-and-balms and hair oils have replaced aerated soft drinks, cars/jeeps and writing instruments among the Top 10.

But are the trends in TV comparable to print? Has the print medium also seen changes in the categories that have spent money with them?

A look at Figure 2 reveals a few interesting facts. Two-wheelers continued their steady build-up to top press spends in Festive 2002. Cars/jeeps, which had topped spends in Festive 2001, had to be satisfied with the No 2 position. Cellular phone services and TV channels stormed into the Festive Press Top 10 list in place of computer education and insurance. Computer education, post the software slowdown, has been on a downward spiral in terms of ad spends.

TV channel promotions, which was ranked No 12 in Festive 2001, has entered the Top 10 Festive Print list at No 10 by upping their spends by a whopping 46 per cent compared to Festive 2001. The top channel networks spending on print have been ZEE, Sony, ETV and STAR, as exemplified by Figure 3. What's more, while most analysts would believe that channel-publication deals are all barter deals, market feedback for Festive 2002 is quite the opposite. A large chunk of the deals that took place in Festive 2002 turned out to be paid deals. A senior media professional avers, "Barter deals are done in a lean season. In Festive, when inventory levels are stretched, all that publications want are all-cash deals."

Summing up the trend in Festive 2002, Atul Phadnis, director, S-Group, TAM Media, says, "Overall, Festive 2002 seems like one where FMCGs and corporate campaigns dominated TV spends. However, print was a mixed bag between auto, durables, real estate, cellular and TV channels. It will be interesting to see if 2003 is able to generate the kind of growths that the industry is gasping for!" © 2003 agencyfaqs!