The Hindu Business Line : Ad volumes rise 5% during World Cup

The FIFA soccer fever finally came to a close early this week and if advertising volumes can be considered as a measure to gauge the popularity of soccer in India, it is definitely on the rise. A recent report of TAM Media Research shows a five per cent rise in ad volumes in FIFA 2006 vis-à-vis 2002.

While FIFA 2002 recorded 46,225 secondages of ads, this year it was 48,615 secondages. Similarly, the average advertising volume per match this year was 760 seconds vis-à-vis 703 seconds in 2002. However, the total number of brands, which advertised this year, fell from 47 to 32.

The total programming time also fell by seven per cent this year, while the ad time rose by five per cent.

FIFA 2006 also witnessed a 38 per cent decline in the number of categories which advertised. The number of categories fell from 26 to 16 this year. Similarly, the number of advertisers fell by 37 per cent this year. While 2002 saw as many as 30 advertisers, this year it was 19. The number of brands also fell from 47 to 32 this year.

As far as the categories of advertisers are concerned, the cell phone service companies were the largest spenders with an 18 per cent share, followed by cellular phones (15 per cent), aerated soft drinks (13 per cent) and corporate brand image (10 per cent).

The top advertisers this year were Bharti Cellular (17 per cent), Motorola (15 per cent), Coca-Cola (14 per cent) and Adidas (10 per cent).

On the other hand, companies such as Hero Honda Motors and Mirc Electronics, who advertised in the last World Cup, were among the loyal advertisers. In fact, Hero Honda stepped up its ad spends in FIFA 2006 by almost three times.