Internet Portals Spent Rs 28.4 Crore On Offline Advertising In H12006

Here are some numbers on the advertising by internet portals in the first six months of this year. According to AdEx India, a division of TAM Media Research, online portals have spent Rs 13.7 crore ($3 million) on television advertising in just the first six months of 2006. This is almost equal to what they spent in the whole of 2005.
In print media, the total advertising spend by online portals reached Rs 14.7 crore in the first six months of 2006. Among the top ten advertisers in the first six months of the year is People Interactive, the owners of Shaadi.com and social networking and dating site Fropper.com. Devyani Nagpal, CMO, Travelguru.com, offers an explanation why portals are spending, “You can’t build a large consumer brand only on the internet. Big internet companies like Amazon have built their brands on TV. India is following the same trend. How do you get more people online? By addressing them through offline media.” [Ed: We don’t think MySpace and Google were brands built offline.]
Sachin Bhatia of MakeMyTrip, told The Brand Reporter, “The way Makemytrip looks at it, we use the internet to get immediate transactions, TV to build the brand, print to detail out our travel deals and outdoor as a reminder medium.”