Advertising Industry

Advertising is the means of informing as well as influencing the general public to buy products or services through visual or oral messages. A product or service is advertised to create an awareness in the minds of potential buyers. Some of the commonly used media for advertising are T.V., radio, websites, newspapers, magazines, bill-boards, hoardings etc. As a result of economic liberalization and the changing social trends advertising industry has shown rapid growth in the last decade.

Advertising is one of the aspects of mass communication. Advertising is actually brand-building through effective communication and is essentially a service industry. It helps to create demand, promote marketing system and boost economic growth. Thus advertising forms the basis of marketing.

Advertising plays a significant role in today's highly competitive world. A career in advertisement is quite glamourous and at the same time challenging with more and more agencies opening up every day. Whether it's brands, companies, personalities or even voluntary or religious organizations, all of them use some form of advertising in order to be able to communicate with the target audience. The salary structure in advertising is quite high and if you have the knack for it one can reach the top. It is an ideal profession for a creative individual who can handle work-pressure.

Today, new areas are emerging within advertising like event management, image management, internet marketing etc. Event management wherein events are marketed, Image management wherein a a particular profile of an individual or an organisation is projected. Internet marketing has also brought about a lot of changes in advertising as Internet means that one is catering to a select group of audience rather than a mass audience.

Overview of Advertising Industry in India
The structure of the advertising industry in Asia Pacific has been affected by globalisation and international alignments creating a smaller number of very large agencies and the growth of independent major media buying houses. Very sophisticated software optimisation and planning systems are now integral to the industry, enabling agencies to offer a unique positioning in the marketplace to attract new business.

American companies are discovering the appeal of marketing their products in India. With a population of approximately one billion, and a middle class that's larger than the total population of the United States, there's definitely money to be made. Local retailers in apparel, food, watches and jewellery have all increased their average ad spending by almost 50% in the past two years. Coupled with many other local players big retailing brands are spending to the tune of Rs 12,000 crores annually on advertising and promotional activities. This figure, according to industry estimates, was less than Rs 400 crores about 3 years ago. Which means the growth has been a whopping 40%. The local firms are using all the available advertising tools from electronic to print, outdoor advertising and even models. The advertising and promotional spending by local brands is substantial during the festival season and almost 70% of the spending is done between September to January. The advertising industry in India is growing at an average rate of 10-12% per annum. Over 80% of the business is from Mumbai and Delhi followed by Bangalore and Chennai.

Online Ad Spending in India
Online advertising spending is holding its own and will continue to grow steadily over the next several years. Marketers are responding to the economic challenges with new techniques and strategies, along with research data to prove their effectiveness. According to statistics, online ad spending has reached $23 billion. Nonetheless, nearly three-quarters of web advertising space goes unsold and more than 99.7 per cent of banner ads are not clicked on.

Scope of Advertising Industry in India
The advertising industry in India has several competitive advantages:

• India has a rich pool of strategic planning, creative and media services personnel: Indeed, Indian advertising industry has been exporting senior-level talent to many countries, particularly to the Gulf, South-East Asia, China, the UK and the US. Indian talent is recognised and respected in global agency networks.
• No other country has access to so many trained management graduates who can provide strategic inputs for brand and media planning.
• Indians are multicultural: we learn at least two languages and that gives us a head start in understanding cultural diversity.
• Most of the top 20 agencies in India have a global partner or owner, which should provide an immediate link to global markets.
• Our production standards in TV and print have improved: With a vibrant animation software industry, we have access to this area of TV production.
• India's advanced IT capabilities can be used to develop Web-based communication packages for global clients.