Educational institutes spend big on advertising

Sumedha Srivastav - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
Since time immemorial, many educational institutions across India have been thriving on brand names, be it promoting the discipline of boarding schools such as Doon School in Dehradun or Sherwood in Nainital, or upholding the anglo filia of St Stephen's College in New Delhi. Many educational institutions are aggressively promoting their brands through advertisements in print, electronic and the new media.

Speaking to Televisionpoint.com, M G Parameswaran, executive director and CEO, Draftfcb+Ulka, says, "It is mainly the newer private educational institutes that are driving the advertisement in education to record levels. Advertisements on education are adopting newer and interesting forms and they are not merely restricted to conventional ads in newspaper and television."

"It is fantastic that education institutes are aggressively looking at spending heavily on advertisements. It is also important because schools and colleges run on brand names and reputation." says Swapan Seth, chief executive officer, Equus Red Cell.

"These days, institutes are looking at more creative ways to promote their brands, such as organising seminars, competitions and career counselling classes. Coaching counselling institutes have been investing heavily in education. In fact, they account for one-third of the total advertisement spending on education." Parameswaran explains.

"In print, education is among the top three ad spenders. The ad spending on education in print and the electronic medium is very high and we felt that on the websites, despite low advertisements at present, the potential is very high." says Hitesh Oberoi, chief operating officer, Naukri.com, which in May launched an education portal called www.shiksha.com to attract the internet-savvy youngsters.

In 2007, the education sector spent a staggering Rs 574 crore on print advertisement. Ad spending on education would only continue to rise and it could increase by as much as 50 per cent over the next five years, it is learnt.

Many vocational institutes have also been heavily spending money in branding themselves. Most of the advertisements come from private and new institutes such as Amity and the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM).

"The Indian Institute of Management and the Indian School of Business would only take out ads for new courses they introduce. At present, their share in ads is small. The entire advertisement industry spends around Rs 15,000 crore annually, of this education share is about Rs 600 crore. However, in the future we can expect these figures to witness a steep rise," says Parameswaran.