Women's magazines have a considerable male readership and men's magazines have a considerable female readership- we very well know that! What bothered us was, does the same hold true for TV, specifically pageants like the Miss Universe?

So this time we analyze pageants and try to find out the viewership trends for the same, along with what media planner and buyers do or don't do right. Our scope of study would be the three recent events: Miss Universe pageant, Grasim Mr. India and Gladrags Mega Model.

Take a look at the graphs below; the viewership of the Miss Universe pageant. While the ratings are decent, clearly, the pageant viewership was skewed towards males; the highest being in Delhi with almost no female audience. The city of Mumbai was an exception though, with more female viewers for the beauty pageant.

Similarly, look at the next two graphs for Grasim Mr. India and Gladrags Mega Model- both male pageants. Again we see the same trend with a clear, but less prominent skew towards women viewers. The combined market, for example, has almost double the female viewers and Mumbai has an approximate 40 times greater female viewership in the Grasim Mr. India 2002. Again, in Gladrags Mega Model, with the exception of Bangalore, and Delhi, all the other markets had a greater number of female viewers. The trend was most prominently marked in Mumbai, where women viewers were 240 times more than the male viewers.

What we just saw in the three graphs above is a very clear indication that the readership trends that print experiences, is broadly applicable to TV as well. Our conclusion therefore: Female beauty pageants attract a great deal of male viewership and male pageants see a fair deal of female viewership!

But are the advertisers and the agencies using this insight? If the brand monitoring data for the three events is any indicator, then, not exactly! If one were to look at the advertisers on these pageants, they certainly don't seem to be observing the viewership pattern of such events. Miss Universe for example, was used for advertising women's products more. While the male category saw a total of 500 sec. of advertising on the pageant, the female category saw a total of 730 sec. (See table 1 below)
Table 1: Miss Universe - Products for women dominate.

Most advertised categories during each of the events
	Miss Universe '2002'
Products	Duration in seconds	Male Category	Female category
Two wheelers	320	320
Cellular Phones	180	180	180
Perfumes/Deo	180		180
Branded jewellery	120		120
Hair oil	100		100
Refrigerator	50		50
Cosmetics	100		100
	1050	500	730

A closer look at the male pageants now. Grasim Mr. India and Gladrags Mega Model. Again, have a look at the products advertised on the two. Needless to say, the advertisers seem to be doing exactly what they did for the Miss Universe pageant. Not taking notice of the skew of viewership for these events, the advertisers go in for advertising more male products here as well. Here the male category attracted a total of 430 and 380 seconds respectively, and the female category attracted a total of 325 and 120 seconds respectively.

	Grasim Mr. India '2002'
Products	Duration in seconds	Male Category	Female category
Suitings	20	20
Readymade Garments	50	50
Fairness cream	10		10
Camera	60	60	60
Talcum	30		30
Perfume/Deo(male)	45	45
Cellular	60	60	60
Two wheelers	45	45
Sampoo	90		90
Hair oil	35		35
Lubricant	70	70
Tooth pest	40	40	40
Car/jeep	40	40
	595	430	325
	Gladrags Mega Model Man hunt
Products	Duration in seconds	Male Category	Female category
Suitings	180	180
Sanitary Napkins	120		120
Readymade Garments	120	120
Two wheelers	80	80
	500	380	120

One obvious question that arises is, what are these advertisers their brands on? From our observations, they are certainly not banking on the viewership trends of these events. So is it the parallel 'image' of these events that motivates them so that their brands get the right image rub-off? Whatever is the case, one cannot comment on their decisions. But there is certainly one thing that we religiously believe in: what would the right image association do for them if they do not have the right audience for the same.

Some food for thought?