Telecom companies set to splurge on 3G campaigns
Nov 03
THE advertising industry is all set to see some hectic action with all the biggies in the telecom industry — one of the top three categories in terms of ad spends — launching their 3G services. Advertising in the telecom space is expected to see a spike of almost 50 per cent in the next six months, against an annual advertising growth expected to be around 30-32 per cent. In 2009, the telecom sector’s ad spends across TV, press and radio (monitored media) was around Rs 1,200 crore.
“If we look at the figures for the last two years, telecom advertising growth has been around 26-30 per cent while the advertising industry has been growing at 10-12 per cent.
However, this year, in the last six months the segment has not seen much growth compared to last year as most players were in a wait and watch mode. Now that issues like number portability and 3G have got a go-ahead, the companies will start advertising heavily. Telecom advertising is expected to grow by 50 per cent in the next six months,” said Nandini Dias, COO of media agency Lodestar UM.
“There will be a bouquet of new campaigns across media, especially television, in the coming months.
Everyone has a new toy and wants to show it off to the world. This can become one of the key drivers of growth for the Rs 21,000 crore advertising industry in the coming year,” said LV Krishnan, CEO of TAM India, which measures TV viewership and also monitors advertising expenditure.
However, most of the players are tightlipped about their advertising and marketing strategy around 3G, given the competitiveness in the category. Tata Docomo recently unleashed its catchy campaign announcing the launch of its 3G service on November 4. The film is running across all channels, with heavy support on outdoor and other media. The 40-second TV commercial created by ad agency DraftFCBUlka shows people spot-jogging in every imaginable place, their hearts pounding, as they get set for `3G Life’. “We are going to build a lot of hype around 3G.