Matrimonial, personal sites account for 13% of total online campaigns

According to the Nielsen Online AdRelevance June-Aug’09 report from The Nielsen Company, from a total of 3778 online display ad campaigns released in India between June-August 2009, 497 were by personal or matrimonial websites, amounting to thirteen percent of the total number of online campaigns.

Travel booking services and the education sector were the next most active contributors to online advertising, amounting to approximately eight percent each of the total number of online campaigns released in the period. Consim Info is the top advertiser in the personal or matrimonial sector (in terms of number of campaigns) accounting for more than half of the advertising activity in this sector during Jun-Aug’09. In the travel sector, MakeMytrip is the category leader, contributing 23 percent to the total online ad activity in the sector. Education is the third most advertised sector in the online space, led by Amity University (14%).

In terms of number of campaigns, the top two advertisers are Consim and People Interactive – both predominantly advertising for their matrimonial/personals business. Consim accounts for eight percent of the total number of campaigns during June-August 2009 and People Interactive accounts for four percent. Info Edge is the third biggest player (3%) advertising mainly for their employment business.  According to the Nielsen Online AdRelevance report, Times Internet, Yahoo and Sify were among the leading publishers for online display advertising in India. 24 percent of all online campaigns during June-August 2009 included Times Internet properties. For Yahoo, that number was 21 percent.

“Display advertising is expected to substantially expand in India, as Internet penetration accelerates and given the substantially lower costs involved in advertising online. It is an industry that has seen rapid growth in the past couple of years and has the potential to give traditional forms of advertising a run for their money. Keeping tabs on ad spending and campaigns in this space is definitely going to help marketers plan their strategies accordingly,” said Karthik Nagarajan, associate director, online division, The Nielsen Company.