ach year, advertisers spend billions of dollars worldwide to sell their product or service. As competition gets stiffer, ad spends increase to keep pace. Media communication agency Initiative has conducted a study, Spheres of Influence, that takes into account the evolution of advertising expenditure in India and in the world, and traces how much of this money is spent in various media in the two contexts. The study shows that at the global level, advertising took a massive hit in 2001. India, however, showed a nearly 5 per cent growth. Three years later, that is in 2004, adspends took a sharp upturn bosted by the quadrennial events - the Olympics and the Euro 2004. From a mere 3 per cent in 2003, adspends grew by almost 8 per cent in 2004. India�s expenditure too grew from 16 per cent in 2003 to almost 23 per cent in 2004, in dollar terms.

By region, India forms about 0.87 per cent of the global adspend pie, and ranks 15 in the Top 20 listing. The US, of course, leads with 47 per cent, and boasts of adspends greater than the cumulative spends of the next 18 countries in the list, that is, Japan to Switzerland. Medium wise, television, press and radio adspends have increased steadily every year across countries. An interesting observation: While internet adspends have increased gradually over the years in other countries, India has not seen any growth in this medium from 2000 to 2003. Though in 2004 its expenditure grew marginally, it looks set to grow steadily in 2005.... more