Institutions increase ad spend

Jostling for attention among a slew of cars, mobiles and branded apparel advertisements are advertisements by educational institutions "" a direct fallout of the increasing competition among private schools and colleges in India to attract students.

According to Kolkata-based advertising agencies, educational institutions "" that advertise heavily "" spend at least Rs 5 crore a year on promotions through newspapers, hoardings, television channels and brochures, and their ad spends increase by about 10 per cent per year.

Students vie for a good rank in the competitive exams for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and several coaching institutions and colleges bank on this. Each, therefore, tries to compete with the other to get as many students on its rolls as possible.

According to advertising agencies, at the time of admission, ad spends by educational institutions go up by as much as 30 per cent and make up for 50 per cent of an institute's overall ad spend for that year. At the time of admission, local dailies and television channels are full of advertisements extolling the virtues of educational institutions.

While some advertisements focus on the facilities that the institutions provide, others tom-tom the number of toppers they have produced. Consider this.

Approximately 6,000 new print advertisers were registered in education sector during Jan-May '07, out of which 59 per cent were educational institutions, according to a recent study by AdEx India, a division of TAM Media Research.

The period between January to May 2007 saw a 17 per cent rise in print advertising by the education sector over January-May 2006, notes the report. CIIT-JEE, Chaitanya Educational Institutions, and International Institute of Project Management were the three main contributors.

Educational institutions led advertising with 68 per cent share in Jan-May '07, followed by coaching centres with a 15 per cent share.

They garnered nearly 70 per cent of ad volumes, while BPO/call centre training institutes saw the maximum growth in ad volumes during the same period.

The top 10 advertisers in the print media during the January-May 2007 period included Planman Consultant India, and ICFAI. The top three new players in the print media were NMIMS University, National Institute of Science Education & Research, and Bharath University.

The top 10 accounted for 15 per cent of ad volumes. Publications from South India saw maximum ad volumes by educational institutions, vocational training institutes and computer education centres, while North India recorded high advertising by coaching centres.

The findings also noted that 61 per cent advertising took place in non-metro city newspapers, while advertising by foreign education centres was skewed towards metro city newspapers.

The biggest beneficiaries are advertising agencies. Thanks to the increasing number of schools, coaching institutions and colleges that dot the country's landscape, the advertising industry has seen an increased demand for its services.