Indiamart.com to spend Rs 25 crore on marketing

The portal has roped in Quasar Media as the digital agency on record and will spend 50 per cent of its total marketing budget on the digital medium

Indiamart.com, a leading online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, is all set to use advertising and marketing for brand building and to boost the number of users on the site.

Speaking to afaqs!, Dinesh Agarwal, founder and chief executive officer, Indiamart.com reveals that the company has allocated a budget of about Rs 25-30 crore for advertising and marketing activities in the current fiscal year. He says, "Of the total advertising and marketing budget, 50 per cent will be routed to the digital medium."

For the online marketing, the company has roped in Quasar Media as the digital agency on record, after scrutinizing three different digital agencies. This is the first time that Indiamart.com has roped in a digital agency -- earlier, it managed its online advertising on its own.

Agarwal says, "We will mainly use online banner and search engine advertising and social media marketing to build brands and get users on the site." Indiamart.com has presence in over 100 cities in India and is eyeing more users from cities such as Pune, Ludhiana, Baroda, Coimbatore and Kolkata.

Apart from digital advertising, the company will also use its association with Times Private Treaties, the investment arm of Bennett, Coleman & Company (BCCL), to advertise in print, radio and online properties owned by the latter.

There are plans to sponsor TV programmes across various business channels as well. Agarwal says, "Earlier, we have sponsored TV programmes related to small and medium size enterprises (SME); for instance, Emerging Business Forum on Zee Business and We the SMEs on NDTV Profit."