The advertising spend in India emerged as the highest in the Asia-Pacific region, surging by 32 per cent in the first quarter of 2010 when compared to the preceding three months of last year, research firm The Nielsen Company said on Friday.
According to a study by the firm, the average sequential growth of ad spend in the Asia-Pacific region during the quarter was 18 per cent.
"Driven by strong economic performances and rapidly improving consumer confidence levels in the first quarter of 2010, main media (television, newspaper and magazine) advertising activity in India surged by 32 per cent," the company said.
This was the highest growth among the 12 Asia-Pacific markets covered in The Nielsen Company's survey on media spends, it added.
"Economic prospects are improving rapidly and consumers' spending intentions are turning into actual spending reality. This is a sign that marketers, manufacturers and retailers have been eagerly waiting for and is seen translating into advertising spends," The Nielsen Company president (India) Piyush Mathur said.
But the challenge for marketers will now lie in brand positioning and strengthening brand awareness as the downturn has diminished their visibility, he added.
The other countries included under the survey were Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.
On a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, the Indian main media ad spend grew 26 per cent in Q1 2010 as against the same quarter last year, while the average growth across the 12 Asia-Pacific markets was 15 per cent.
The main driver of ad spend growth in India was the newspaper segment, which grew 30 per cent y-o-y and that of television at 26 per cent, Neilsen said, adding that ad spend for magazines grew by 7 per cent in the country.
"The outlook for media advertising across the remainder of 2010 appears extremely positive in India.
"Consumers are out there spending and intending to loosen up their purse strings, so the onus is now on marketers to ensure that their products and services return to the top of mind," Mathur said.
