GURGAON: Advertisers looking for more bang for their buck can take heart that efficacy of television spends in India ranks among the top three across all Asian markets, trailing only behind Taiwan and Malaysia. For every $1,000 spent in India on national television, an advertiser delivers a purchasing power parity of 6.82%, against 9.54% in Taiwan and 6.82% in Malaysia. And for every $1,000 spent, a marketer can get over two million prime-time TV viewers in India.
Further, Internet penetration may well be the lowest in India, but spends on the Net in India are set to explode at a scorching 60% growth — the maximum across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
These are highlights of a first-of-its-kind survey done by GroupM-owned MindShare, the country's largest media buying agency. The survey, which compares media costs across 12 Asian markets, reveals that total media investment across the Asia-Pacific will reach $99 billion in 2007, growing at 8% against a worldwide average of 5%. In fact, overall media growth across Asia has been consistent for the past five years — ranging from 7% to 9%.
Outdoor advertising is the most expensive in India across all the countries surveyed. Outdoor media needs to be more transparent and accountable if prices to be comparable to global standards. Advertising on cinema, on the other hand, costs under $10 in most Asian markets including India.
And even though advertisers may be lost in the slew of fragmented media buying options available today, branded content on television programming, mobile phones, podcasts, user-generated videos, gaming and the virtual world are the new buzzwords. The bulk of investments, however, will continue to be on traditional media. The logic: marketers tend to lag behind the speed with which consumer adopt to new media.
The survey includes television spots, magazines, newspapers, radio, bus shelters, taxi ads, cinema, event promotions, postcard ads, online display advertising and electronic direct marketing and keyword search advertising. Commenting on the findings, MindShare Asia Pacific CEO Ashutosh Srivastava said: "This research enables advertisers to convert various cost formats into a common framework."
The downside is that while emerging Asian markets offer exceptional value for money, media costs in Asia are localised, irregular and heterogenous, says MindShare. The survey adds that advertising on traditional media in India works out between 2% to 36% of China's cost. However, advertising on non-traditional media such bus shelters and taxi wraps is more expensive in India than any other country in the APAC region.
