More than 220 advertisers bought ad space in over 400 Indian newspapers to wish Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 75th birthday on September 17, according to data from AdEx India, a division of TAM Media Research.
Massive print presence
Collectively, these advertisers used about 108,000 column centimetres of space across print publications. When political and social ads by government bodies are included, the total ad volume climbs to 363,000 column centimetres.
Among the top spenders in print were SRM Group, JK Tyre, Navayuga Engineering Company, Kohinoor Group, and SAL Hospital.
The birthday wishes were extended to television as well. Political and social ads from various government departments accounted for nearly 28 hours of total airtime across 90-plus channels. In contrast, commercial advertisers, described by AdEx as “pure advertisers”, accounted for only about half an hour of total TV ad time dedicated to the occasion.
Digital visibility is harder to measure
While the Prime Minister’s birthday saw a surge of posts and campaigns across digital platforms, TAM Media Research said that online ads are coded differently, making it challenging to isolate theme-specific or occasion-based campaigns for analysis.
“The scale of greetings for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 75th birthday was remarkable across media,” L V Krishnan, CEO of TAM Media Research, said. “Most events are multi-day or built over a period of time, hence not directly comparable with this one-day event,” he added.