Hind Lever retains position as top ad spender

NEW DELHI, FEB 24: Fena's complaints may have forced Hindustan Lever to stop tom-tomming the nimbu shakti of its detergents, but when it ...

NEW DELHI, FEB 24: Fena’s complaints may have forced Hindustan Lever to stop tom-tomming the nimbu shakti of its detergents, but when it comes to ad-shakti, or ad-spend, HLL continues to be number one. The company hiked its spending by a whopping 62 per cent to Rs 443.1 crore in 1997-98. At this pace, according to a survey done by A&M magazine, HLL may soon account for one-tenth of all ad-spending in the country.

The A&M survey has displayed sprung many surprises amongst the marketing spenders. Except at the very top where things remained the same with Ashok Leyland retaining the number one slot. Ranbaxy Laboratories increased its marketing spend by over 45 per cent in 1997-98, Smithkline Beecham Pharmaceuticals by 37 per cent. Tisco decreased its marketing spend as a result of a slowdown in the steel industry.

Maruti Udyog Limited increased its marketing spend by a whopping 74 per cent, making it the fifth most biggest marketing spender in 1997-98. MUL spent Rs 76.65 crore on marketing in1997-98 — an increase of Rs 32.69 crore over previous year.

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In the high spend category, it seems that only cement, trading and tobacco were affected by the industrial downturn and saw a cut in the ad spend. Whirlpool’s Rs 19.88 crore cut in market spend made it the number one marketing spend slasher of 1997-98. Videocon International decreased its market spend by Rs 18.63 crore, Cipla by Rs 15.83 crore, Telco by Rs 14.66 crore and Tisco by Rs 13.54 crore.

Amongst companies that slashed their ad spend significantly last year, Titan Industries tops the chart with a Rs 15.97 crore cut. BPL Sanyo ranks third with a cut in ad spent of Rs 7.88 rore. The company’s ad spend has fallen from Rs 10.16 crore to Rs 2.28 crore. Associated Cement Companies slashed its ad spend to almost half from Rs 12.23 crore to Rs 6.19 crore. So did Siemens — from Rs 6.98 crore to Rs 3.35 crore. Even Philips India decreased its ad spend by around Rs 5 crore last year.

Bhavish Aggarwal (Photo via his Twitter page)

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