Luxury apartments with world class facilities, half price sale at a clothes store, mobile phone with three-inch LCD, camera phones…just some of the advertisements on hoardings, serenading the consumer. But today as you drive through the city, more than advertisements for consumer products, you are likely to see advertisers calling for advertisements, their names and numbers given big and bold. Thanks to the economic downturn, say companies, they are taking it slow and cutting down on advertising expenses. But some in the advertising field say it has more to do with the mind than market conditions.

Hoardings available on Koramangala Inner Ring Road, (Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal)

Syed Sameer Ahmed, Manager, Business Development, Adlinks Advertising, says the number of ads on hoardings this January has been 30 per cent lower than last January. "Because of the global economy, the first cut that companies make is on advertising and marketing expenditure. But generally there is a slowdown in January, February and March as it is not festival season,” he explains. Ahmed is hopeful that things will get better after April, when the next financial year begins. "As this is the end of the financial year, advertising will depend on the returns of the company,” he adds. But Shivakumar, Senior Marketing Officer of Infant Advertising, says it is only going to get worse. "As a result of recession, the first area to be affected is advertising. It has been this way for the past six months,” states Shivakumar.

When the economy was first hit, it was the banking sector that felt most of the heat and Bank of Maharashtra was one bank that cut down on advertising. "Last year our overall advertising budget was Rs. 15 lakhs. Twenty five per cent of that was for outdoor ads. This year our budget will be cut by about 20-25 per cent,” says Ramachandra, of Bank of Maharashtra. The bank has no plans to increase its ad spend as advertising did not give them much mileage last year. On the other hand, the State Bank of India has not cut costs on advertising as it is growing. Says an official, on condition of anonymity, "Our business is increasing. Customers and products are also increasing. Our head office in Mumbai decides.”

Vaishnavi Vittal is a staff journalist with Citizen Matters.

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