Eight new entrants have livened up the elite list of the Top 50 advertisers of India. Though advertising is usually a game of the big boys, with new advertisers rarely able to penetrate the Top 10 list, this year a rank newcomer has made it to the Top 5 list, according to the Pitch-Madison Advertising report.

The new kid on the block is fantasy sports platform Dream11, a cricket-based digital game, which is ranked No 3. The other new players (compared to the 2018 list) are Oppo, Byju’s, Swiggy, BJP, MRF, Havells and Kia Motors.

The Top 50 advertisers tend to account for 33 per cent (last year 35 per cent) of the Adex (advertising expenditure). Interestingly, the Top 10 advertisers continued to account for as much as 14 per cent (down from 16 per cent last year) of Adex, and contributed to 43 per cent (46 per cent last year) of the Top 50 list.

While three of the Top 10 advertisers are from the FMCG sector, the others are from diverse categories such as telecom, auto, e-commerce and consumer durables.

The Top5 big spenders according to the Madison report were Hindustan Unilever Ltd in the top position with spends of Rs 3,200-3,500 crore, Amazon Online India was in the second position with spends of Rs 900-1,000 crore, and Dream11 Fantasy in third with spends of Rs 700-800 crore.

Reliance Industries Ltd was in the fourth spot with spends of Rs 700-800 crore, while auto major Maruti Suzuki India came in fifth with ad spends pegged at Rs 700-800 crore.

An interesting tidbit pointed out by Sam Balsara, Madison World Chairman, "By the time an advertiser reaches rank 50, he is down from Rs 3,500 crore to Rs 100 crore."

The Top 50 advertisers spend 78 per cent (up from 74 per cent last year) of their budgets on television and digital combined. This number is significant when compared with total Adex, wherein combined spends is 60 per cent.

The report pointed out that large advertisers continue to be over-indexed on TV and under-indexed on digital.

HUL continues to lead the pack with spends of about Rs 3,400 crore, followed by Amazon, Dream11, Reliance, Maruti, P&G, Vivo, Samsung, Oppo and Vini to make up for the Top 10 list.

Among the Top 50, only three players maintained ranks similar to that in 2018, 24 players dropped in rank and only 15 gained in rank in 2019. A few advertisers, including Vini, Asian Paints, Coke, Apple, Hyundai and Amul gained many ranks on the list, while Vodafone, Flipkart, Reckitt, Airtel, Honda and Emami have dropped many ranks in the list.

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