The football jamboree, which is organized every four years, has not only brought a number of multinational companies into limelight but has also brought a lot of local companies into advertisement business. [break]
Advertising agencies say the industry has seen a growth of 20 percent in annual turnover generating revenue of more than Rs 650 million. Most of the advertisement agencies said the FIFA World Cup has brought positive vibes for the industry and that they have been able to pull almost all sectors into advertisement.
Colleges and educational institutions are spending on advertisements with World Cup themes. Similarly, print media are cashing the popularity by publishing World Cup supplements, thus increasing advertising revenue.
The ad campaigns for many of the companies participating in the World Cup are basically serving two purposes - for some companies marketing efforts are vital in the efforts to maintain brand awareness and market share, and for others ads are important aspect to bolster their brand image and help win over a group of fans that may not have been receptive to the company´s products.
“There has been a substantial growth in advertisement business during the football festival. Heavy promotional campaigns were launched by different commercial houses before World Cup (pre-world cup) and during live telecast,” Ranjit Acharya, CEO of Prisma Advertising, said. “This heavy inflow of fund in advertising industry has reinvigorated the market.”
Both print and broadcast media are seeing healthy rise in advertisements. Such has been the demand for advertisement slots during live telecast that advertising agencies are selling the slots in premium rates.
“The FIFA World Cup 2010 has drawn revenue of around Rs 650 to Rs 700 million during live telecast itself,” Acharya added.
FIFA World Cup has helped revive the advertising industry that was seeing slackness due to six days of indefinite protest in the first week of May, Acharya said.
The business is usually down as this time of year. Thanks to the football jamboree, there has been a tremendous growth in commercial advertisement this time around, according to Rajkumar Bhattarai of Spectrum Advertising and Media Company.
FIFA World Cup 2010 has turned out to be beneficial for not only the advertising industry. It has also set the market in motion by bringing in good business for major consumer products, Acharya said. “Most of the brands were able to pull a large number of customers through different schemes,” he added.
Acharya further added that local brands like Ruchee Noodles, Prime Life Insurance, Ncell and Home TV are players competing neck to neck with international brands like LG, Bajaj, and Coca Cola during the live telecast.
“One of the popular trends this year has been a shift from big-name endorsers toward the use of user-generated content to help promote their products,” says Ravi Aryal, account executive at Thompson Nepal.
“Unlike previous years, there has been a tremendous increment in the amount spent in television commercials during this time. We have witnessed 300 percent growth in TVC spending,” he added.
He also said advertising during live telecast of matches has been contributing a lot in creating bad awareness, which ultimately will bring in better prospects for advertisement industry.
Though the advertising industry saw unprecedented growth in the last one month, people in the industry said there will be a slight downturn in business as the current fiscal year is about to end.
Related story
Four Nepali channels to broadcast FIFA World Cup 2018
