HUL, ITC biggest ad spenders during lockdown 4.0; TV viewership up 15%: Nielsen-Barc survey

While most sectors saw business activity coming to a standstill during the two-month lockdown, many FMCG sector companies were among the biggest ad spenders. HUL, Reckitt Benckiser, ITC were among the top three ad spenders during the last week of May, Nielsen-Barc weekly data from May 23-May 29 suggests. Other major spenders in the top 10 were Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd, Policybazaar Insurance Brokers Private Limited, Procter & Gamble, Wipro Ltd, Zee Entertainment Enterprises And GCMMF (Guj Coop Milk Mkt Fed).

A collective survey by Nielsen-Barc suggests other top spenders during mid-May were Colgate, Amul, P&G and Amazon. Companies like Reliance Industries, PepsiCo, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma and Asian Paints also increased their ad spends during mid-May.

Other ad spenders included companies selling summer-specific products, soft drink companies and air condition brands. Despite some rise in total ad spending by companies -- about 16 per cent -- during the last two weeks of May, the companies are still spending 23 per cent less on ads compared to the pre-COVID period, the survey suggests.

 During the lockdown period, people remained glued to smartphones, says the survey. The survey says the overall TV viewership spiked 15 per cent to 1 trillion viewing minutes during the lockdown in India as compared to the pre-COVID period.

Non-prime time viewership, including kids shows, news and films, saw viewership rising significantly. Notably, DD National became the most-watched channel for two consecutive weeks in April due to retelecast of mythological TV shows Ramayana, Mahabharat and Shri Krishna. From March 28 to April 3, it received 1.5 billion viewership figures and created a record for the highest viewership figures in the channel's long history.

Also read: Local sanitiser brands flood market after lockdown; HUL, Reckitt Benckiser lose market share