The Car Industry has shown pretty healthy signs of growth in the past two years. 2002 closed at about Rs 200 crores and till May 2003, the industry has spent Rs 180 crores so far-reasons being World Cup and lots of launches. The ad spends for the year would close at Rs 300 Crores.

New launches have been happening almost every month; clients are spending big bucks in media and with new models emerging in the market by the month-customer is certainly the king. Today the customer has got a choice of 70 cars or more to choose from, and that too at every possible price range.

The cars in B segment (Corsa Sail), C segment (Accent, Ikon, Versa and Lancer), and D segment (Mondeo, Vectra and Optra) have been using the TV media very effectively. But the aggressive segment in 2003, so far has been the SUV segment apart from the B-segments of cars. The SUVs (Bolero, Scorpio, Pajero and Safari) have been aggressive with both Print (newspapers and Magazines) and TV.

Indigo started 2003 with clearly leading the category in terms media spends. It had spent almost Rs 6 Crores in Dec'02 leading up to Rs 14 crores in the first 3 months of the year. The first 45 days of 2003 saw 40% of the 2002 investments getting spent on Media. Corolla (D segment) was leading in with 49% of segment spend during the period.

The fight for eyeballs this year is in the C segment with Accent, Ikon, Corsa, Indigo and the new Optra fighting the battle. Overall, the media spend have been equal across the print and TV with Corsa having the highest skew towards TV. Ford Nxt and Corsa also saw big spends in the beginning of the year.

Lets examine C and D segment in 2002.

2002 - D segment car arrive:
Ford Mondeo, Hyundai Sonata, Honda Accord, Mercedes C Class, Toyota Camry, Mercedes E Class
Opel Vectra and Toyota Corolla - are some of the names to have entered the Indian car market in a flurry. The D-segment is the fastest growing category of cars and according to the industry sources; it is growing at a healthy rate of 35% per annum.

Media Spends in 2002
There was a clear domination by Hyundai Sonata in 2001-02. Ford Mondeo & Mercedes C Class were a distant second but as the year progressed there was almost a 20% spurt in media spends primarily by Mondeo and Camry.

On TV, Corsa led the segment with 27% SOS and a corresponding 37% SOV while Accent & Ikon were close in SOS terms, however distant in SOV to Corsa

The Road ahead - SUV to rule the space

SUV have entered the Indian market with a flurry and have managed to create sensation, both in terms of pricing and looks. Though they sell fewer in numbers, the category by itself has been one of the big spenders on media. In times to come, SUV will certainly add more glamour to the four-wheeler category.

SUV on roads
Mahindra Scorpio - Rs 6 lakhs
Suzuki Grand Vitara XL-7 - Rs 20 lakhs
Chevrolet Forester - Rs 15.59 lakhs
Mercedes M-Class - Rs 45 lakhs
Mitsubishi Pajero - Rs 21 lakhs

Yet to be launched
Toyota Land Cruiser - Rs 25 lakhs
Hyundai Terracan - Rs 18-20 lakhs

SUV will prove to be one of the biggest spenders in media in rest of the year while B-segment cars will continue to be seen in all forms of media, including Print and TV.

Data Source & Information : ADEX and Universal McCann