The share of festive advertising also increased to 9% from being 8% in August.

So, which was the festival that dominated in September? It was the festival of Nine nights-Navratri and Dussera, contributing nearly 65 % of the festive advertising in September.

This would stand true even if we were to look at festive advertising both in August and September. This underlines the fact that Navratri and Dussera have been the leaders so far with both advertisers and publication houses making most of the opportunities on offer.

Let’s look at which categories dominated the three major festivals this August-September-Independence Day, Ganesh Chaturthi and Onam. Corporate/Brand Image & Cellular Phone Services topped Independence Day Advertising. Other noticeable contributors were TV Channel Promotions, Airlines and Insurance. Television Channels promoted their I-Day special programs in a big way on Print.

Moving on to the religious festivals, Durables Range, Independent Retailers, Jewellery, Readymade Garments dominated Onam advertising driven by the fact that it is considered to be an auspicious time to make new purchases.

Ganesh Chaturthi throws up quite a interesting picture. Two Wheelers is the top category here. Remarkably, Retail categories for both Two Wheelers and Cars/Jeeps feature amongst the top categories on Ganesh Chaturthi advertising. But, most noteworthy of all is Properties/Real Estates which comes third.

Sales Promotion offers too continued to be in plenty, accounting for 40% of the spends on festive advertising in August-September. Festival Greetings by advertisers contributed to almost one–tenth of the same.

Publications too have tried to make hay while the sun shines. Special festival centric supplements (most of them Magazines in nature) have come through as a major source of revenue for them, accounting for 12 % of spends on festive advertising.

All the above analyses have been done from Press AdEx Data (August-September 2003). In the coming few days, we shall come out with similar analyses on the two biggest festivals of the year, Dussera & Diwali.

Analysis from AdEx India (A Division of TAM Media Research Pvt. Ltd.)