The Hindu Business Line : Advertisers latch on to India-Sri Lanka match

Mumbai March 23 With Friday's match between India-Sri Lanka attracting unprecedented viewership new advertisers jumped on board leading both Doordarshan and SET Max to make a killing with their ad rates. While SET Max jacked up its left over inventory of air-time with ad rates amounting to Rs 6 lakh for 10-second spots, Doordarshan also escalated its prices to Rs 3 lakh for the 10-second spots.

"Clearly there is going to be huge ratings for the India-Sri Lanka match. We have closed on some new deals but it is Nokia and Pepsi, the presenting sponsors, who have been the consistent buyers across the matches," said Mr Rohit Gupta, Executive Vice-President Ad Sales, SET, who spoke to Business Line on the eve of the match.

Heavy Editing

Retaining 5 per cent of its inventory has helped the official broadcaster, which does not want to divulge the names of its last minute buyers. Media planners believe that they are a clutch of small advertisers.

"There have been spot buys by 2-3 new advertisers for the match due to the unprecedented ratings expected," added Mr Gupta.

For any 100 over match, the ad time varies between 80 and 100 minutes.

The average is between 4,500 and 6,000 seconds with almost 150 spots. However, it is tough to squeeze airtime beyond that even if there is an inventory of 5 per cent. In fact there is heavy editing going on with the spots, pointed out a media planner.

Crucial Match

Meanwhile, Nimbus, which has been selling Doordarshan's airtime for the World Cup, also raised its hopes on the match that will determine India's fortunes in the 2007 World Cup. Mr Raju Udupa, Vice-President Marketing, Nimbus Communications, says, "We had kept aside 10 per cent of our inventory for this match and new clients have been hopping in. Advertisers are banking heavily on this one match."

Taking in new advertisers such as Asian Paints, Cadbury and Marico, Doordarshan has gone beyond its Rs 1.5-Rs 2 lakh per 10-seconds range to cash in on this crucial match. "The market is robust but we have not gone overboard with our rates. Today almost every sector is advertising in the World Cup."

Regular Advertisers

While Doordarshan has always attracted a particular genre of advertisers, the World Cup has broken this trend. Adds Mr Udupa, "We have not been restricted by our regular advertisers. For the World Cup we have done deals with almost 16 marketers."

This includes a wide spread across sectors ranging from lubricant brands to telecom operators.

At the same time, there are advertisers who have not been able to straddle both the channels airing the World Cup.

The ban on surrogate ads on Doordarshan had led smaller advertisers to hop on to SET Max. Smaller ghutka manufacturers like Gopal Zarda have been displaying spots on SET Max.

On the other hand, Doordarshan has had the privilege of airing spots from Reliance Insurance since the group backed out from being the official sponsors after its competitor Hutch stepped in for the World Cup.