Corporates reduce marketing spend, show old ads

Rahul Kapoor - Televisionpoint.com | New Delhi
Corporates are responding to economic worries by curtailing their marketing budgets. While many are releasing old advertisements, some dating back to three years ago, others are relying on the tried and tested formula of shorter bursts of advertising.

The credit crunch has ensured that specific brands have also cut down on their advertising spends. Significant emphasis is being placed on measuring efficacy and returns on investment. Promotional spends are also being made to work harder.

"For some corporates, it is a question of budgetary realignment. For others, like the Indian financial sector, it is an issue of reviewing their assets to determine their exposure. Many firms have cut down on making new ads." says ad veteran Prem Mehta.

"Historically, there is a drop in the off take of most products. The global vagaries of the market ensure that advertising directly echoes the changes in the off take of products and old ads are belted out." Mehta adds.

Take for instance the three year old Maruti Suzuki ad, which has a young boy zooming his play car all over the house and mouthing, 'khatam hi nahi hunda', which is being repeated on TV screens, or the 'one hour champi kiya' ad from Parachute, which has a year-old baseline of 'Gorgeous Hamesha'.

"Companies are intent on conserving resources during these times. Old advertisements do not augur well for the advertising industry, but as marketing companies look into the future, they will hunker down for a brief potential." says Nakul Chopra, CEO, Publicis South Asia.

Nakul continues, "We have shortened our planning cycle to tailor market investments in line with market growth. Big clients have cut back on marketing spends by fairly large amounts even in the US and Europe. The only growth potential left is these markets, the only silver lining so to say, are the emerging markets."