Telcos top IPL ad charts with 3G campaigns

MUMBAI: Mobile phone operators have once again topped the advertising chart for the Indian Premium League (IPL). Vodafone, Tata Docomo, Airtel and Idea were the most seen brands during IPL's fourth edition as they pushed their just launched 3G services on television.

TAM Sports, a television sports viewership tracker, said other top brands to advertise during the IPL included Hyundai i10, Cadbury's Dairy Milk, Volkswagen Passat , Havells fans in a three week period starting April 8.

Telecom companies were the most prominent advertisers during IPL-3, according to TAM Sports, which attracted 143 million viewers. Last year Vodafone, Tata Docomo, Idea Cellular, Airtel and Videocon Mobile occupied the top slots as the biggest advertisers.

While mobile service providers topped the chart, other categories like automobiles, soft drinks and air-conditioners made up the rest of the top five. TAM Sports ranks advertisers based on duration and does not indicate absolute money spent by a brand or advertiser.

This year many first-time consumer goods makers including, L'Oreal, Johnson & Johnson and ITC got on to the IPL bandwagon after data showed that the Twenty20 cricket format has a large number of female viewers. Although cellular operators have been traditionally associated with cricket, the launch of 3G services meant that they bought more on-air presence this year on SET Max, the official broadcaster of the IPL.

"A few years back, cola brands like Pepsi and Coke used to rule cricket advertising. But with the growth of telecom and automobile categories, they have taken the top position. This is also supplemented by the fact that there are newer players entering these two categories unlike the soft drinks category, which has only two big players," said Ajit Varghese, MD, Maxus India, the agency which bought media for Vodafone.

The top ten list of advertisers, as seen during the ad breaks of the IPL till now, features FMCG majors like L'Oreal, Cadbury, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola besides the mentioned telecommunication companies. TAM Sports has a separate list of top advertisers, categories and brands.