TV advertising in India witnessed close to 29% growth in Q1′08 wildly driven by cellular phone services (as per AdEx study).

The top 10 advertisers’ share aggregated to 19 % of the overall TV advertising during Q1’08; and the list comprised of three players from the telecom sector (i.e. Vodafone, Airtel and Reliance) and two from the aerated soft drinks sector (quite obvious, pepsi & coke) in Q1 ’08.

Surprisingly, the ads by travel industry has gone up very significantly (49%, compared to 2005) – and guess who topped the list?

Ministry of Tourism was the top advertiser in the travel and tourism sector on TV, with a 24% share of the pie. It was followed by Malaysia Tourism (15%) and Madhya Pradesh Tourism (10%) – source

I have couple of observations:

• While cellular companies are re-branding and repositioning themselves, the falling ARPU does seem to affect their bottomline – how justified is so much of money that goes in advertising?
• TV ad rates are moving northwards – and small advertisers need to explore different media to reach out to potential customers? Is online advertising in india the answer?

What’s your take?

Tags: Online advertising in India