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Nithya Subramanian

New Delhi , Feb. 8

FAST Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) major Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) may have slashed prices of its various brands last calendar year but its advertising budget was not snipped.

The company retained its numero uno position among the top advertisers by increasing its adspend by Rs 121 crore to Rs 517 crore in 2004, from the previous year's Rs 396 crore.

According to the Lintas Media Guide 2005, HLL's rival Procter & Gamble has also notched up its budget by Rs 40 crore to Rs 145 crore. Other companies that pushed up their adspend last year included Maruti, Samsung, Bajaj Auto and LG Electronics.

ITC Ltd is out of the toppers list mainly due to the ban enforced on advertising of tobacco and tobacco-related products from May 1, 2004. In the auto sector, Hyundai Motors fell out of the race giving way to the new entrant TVS Motor Company. Hero Honda too cut its advertising spend to Rs 97 crore, from the previous year's Rs 108 crore.

Also, it is the FMCG companies that have dominated television advertising with others such as Reckitt Benckiser (India), Dabur India, Pepsi Co, Johnson & Johnson and Colgate Palmolive India.

Maruti and Samsung have been the other two large advertisers in this medium. Coca-Cola India and Nestle India, which spent Rs 67 crore and Rs 47 crore respectively on television were edged out last year, said the Lintas study.

The FMCG sector has virtually no presence in the print medium except for HLL, which spent Rs 57 crore. Automobiles, two wheelers and consumer durables have been dominating this space. Here Maruti tops the list with a spend of Rs 135 crore, followed by Bajaj with Rs 100 crore and LG with Rs 89 crore. The Indian arm of the global IT major, Hewlett-Packard India spent Rs 54 crore in print advertising this year. Both ITC and Reliance Infocomm did not mark their presence in 2004.

There was also a reshuffle among the categories that spent heavily on advertising in 2004. Shampoos emerged the leader with companies spending Rs 220 crore, unsettling last year's leader toilet soaps. The toilet soap category accounted for Rs 205 crore in 2004. Washing powders/liquids, two-wheelers, cellular phone service and cars/jeeps increased their advertising investments while corporate/brand image advertising and biscuits, which spent Rs 154 crore and Rs 92 crore in 2003, vanished. On the one hand, soft drinks moved up the ranking, but overall spends fell from Rs 104 crore in 2003 to Rs 96 crore in 2004. On the other hand, toothpastes fell down the ranking despite marginal hike in theiradvertising monies.

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