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MUMBAI, March 18

DESPITE the splash made by Pepsi and the Dew - and the spoofs on the Dew and the spoofs on the spoofs - Hindustan Lever Ltd. has emerged as the biggest advertiser in the World Cup.

And for all those advertisers who preferred to stick with the K-serials and give the World Cup a miss, the verdict is out: you lost out.

Thus far, HLL is the biggest advertiser on SET-Max and on DD in terms of duration, accounting for 29,855 seconds overall, followed by Pepsi and Reliance on Max, and LG and Pepsi on DD, respectively, according to an analysis by TAM Media Research's S-Group. "Certain competing advertisers adopted opposite strategies to avoid a head-to-head collision," said Mr Atul Phadnis, Director, S-Group.

For all the excitement over the Super Six matches, viewership of the non-India matches did not score very heavily. While the India-Kenya match got an average rating of 13.4 across the top six metros, the New Zealand-Zimbabwe match only managed an average rating of 2.8 in cable & satellite households 4+ years, on Max and Sony. DD did slightly better: the India-Kenya match averaged a rating of 17.4, while the New Zealand-Zimbabwe match only averaged 4.0 in the top six metros on DD1 and DD2, according to TAM S-Group. Viewership was generally higher in Kolkata and Delhi, and lower in Chennai and Bangalore.

On the advertising front, the top brands on TV up to March 7 were: Pepsi, Reliance India Mobile, Coca-Cola, Hero Honda, Thums Up and BSNL CellOne. The most heavily advertised product categories were soft drinks, cellular phone services, two-wheelers, TVs, toothpastes and corporate advertising.

So, how does advertising on the World Cup compare with advertising on a popular serial or blockbuster movie? Based on the number of people who are exposed to five commercials of a brand at least once during the India-Pakistan match as compared to five commercials in serials or movies, the match reached up to 38 per cent of the target audience in Mumbai and Delhi, according to TAM S-Group. In comparison, a popular serial reached about 20 per cent, and a movie, less than that. Commercials on an event, like a Bollywood awards event, reached only about 10 per cent of the target audience.

"However, one has to bear in mind the cost of advertising on cricket vis-à-vis other programming," Mr Phadnis noted. "(Also) uncertainties like India's performance could play a huge role in determining retention of audience interest in the match, and hence the viewership."

But, it does seem like the serials and cricket matches can co-exist: according to a minute-by-minute analysis of audience movement between Max and Star Plus during the India-Kenya day/night match in the six metros, there is a clear shift of audiences to Max from Star Plus during the ad breaks on Star, and a similar movement of audiences to Star Plus from Max during ad breaks there. "Audience movement can happen at any time - when there is not much excitement in the match, for example," Mr Phadnis said. "(But it) clearly impacts the viewership of the channels, as rating is a measure that is a combined component of number of people watching a programme, and also the time that they spend on that programme."

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HLL is World Cup's biggest advertiser

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