Online Display Advertising Market In India

As media vehicles continue to fragment and mesh within each other, marketers need to
understand the implication of various parameters guiding this fragmentation basis the
consumer behavior. The challenge for a marketer is to have a deeper understanding of
every media vehicle so that they can selectively target right customers for their
message delivery.
Internet has opened up a lot of opportunities for marketers for targeting customers in
interactive and measurable ways. Online advertising helps to target specific customer
segments and gather information across geographical boundaries in a cost effective
manner. Online advertising helps in not only leading visitor to a publisher's site but also
creating awareness which potentially could result in gradual brand building. This report
aims to map the size of online display advertising in India. The report charts detailed
behavior of Internet users and small-medium enterprises in the online display
advertising market in India. The report is based on an extensive research conducted by
IMRB International and supported with industry feedback.
Findings of the report show that size of the online display advertising market has
reached INR 3250 Million for FY 2008-09 registering a significant growth rate of 38%
and is expected to surge at INR 4300 Million for FY 2009-10. The study reveals the fact
that online publishers (26%) remain major contributors of this market while there is a
sharp decline in the contribution of the BFSI sector (25% to 17%) this year. In addition,
FMCG sector and mobile handset manufacturers have adopted this form of advertising
as an effective tool to target Internet users in the age group of 18-24 years, who are the
growth drivers of the Internet in India.
Online display advertisement has consistently formed a sizeable portion of overall
online advertisement market. It has continued to be an effective long-term option for
digital marketers in targeting customers with specific characteristics. Although the share
of other options such as search engine marketing may assume larger proportions over
4


time, display advertisement will continue to command a substantial part of this
spending. Recent financial debacle in the US and its ripple effect on the Indian economy
has resulted in differences in the market dynamics compared with previous years.
However, increase in the Internet user base, extensive usage of Internet by political
parties for elections and usage of Internet for advertising by SMEs are the factors
strongly supporting for sustained growth of online display advertising market in India.