In advertising, this year saw Hindustan Lever at number one, hiking its ad spend by over 62 per cent to Rs 443.11 crore. Retaining its number two position is ITC, with Rs 171.56 crore, followed by Colgate-Palmolive, with a 40 per cent hike in ad spend to Rs 147.9 crore. However, Colgate Palmolive had the second biggest ad-spend hike. The survey is being carried in the March 15 issue of the magazine.

With the exception of ITC, Videoconand Indexport, all the top 10 ad spenders uniformly increased their budgets this year. Prominent among companies who hiked their ad spends by 40 per cent or more were: TELCO, Gramaphone Company, Whirlpool, Daewoo Motors, Marico, TVS-Suzuki, Reckitt & Colman, Ranbaxy, Kodak and Proctor & Gamble.

In marketing spends, Ashok Leyland continues to lead for the third consecutive year. Ranbaxy Laboratories, at number two, increased its budget by 45 per cent, followed by Smithkline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, with a 37 per cent hike in spending. Among major `upsets': TISCO, at number four fell by two ranks, while Maruti Udyog at number five jumped up from rank 23 with an increase of 74 per cent in its marketing budget. Similarly, Tata Infotech at 8, improved from rank 19 last year. JCT slipped to number 9 from its previous position of 5, while Reliance, at 10, is up five places.

As a corollary, both aggregate ad and marketing spends as a percentage of sales went up - from 1.12 to 1.40 per cent for advertising andfrom 1.70 to 1.95 per cent for marketing.