She has been played a large role in taking the Sam Balsara promoted Madison Advertising , a 14-year old agency with capitalsied billings of Rs 4 billion, to the heights it has over the past few years. And she has gained a reputation as a media professional par excellence.

Madison Media West's COO Punitha Arumugam oversees accounts such as Kinetic, the Essel Group, P&G, Godrej and BPL among others. Arumugam combines the best of research experience with a flair for understanding the psychographics of various media.

Indiantelevision.com caught up with Arumugam for her views on the forthcoming World Cup cricket 2003. Excerpts -

Will you prefer Doordarshan or Max? Why?
There is nothing like a preference for either of the channels. Our clients use both DD and MAX to advertise their brands regularly. The choice of the channels for the different brands is a function of their target audience/markets/budgets/activity requirements.

What do you think is the size of the total advertising spend?
During the last World Cup 1999, both DD and ESPN/STAR Sports mopped up over Rs 2.5 billion. Therefore, it would not be surprising that the current World Cup should garner ad spends of around Rs 3.5 billion. The industry is already talking about these figures and they don't seem so unrealistic.

Can brands afford to ignore the World Cup?
From my perspective, there are three type of clients :
Type 1 - "MUST" USE CRICKET :

These clients could include the durables; the two-wheelers; the soft drinks companies; and others. These are the sort of clients who believe that cricket is a unique vehicle that gives that big dhamaka required to woo their consumers. These clients prefer to be on cricket broadcasts; come what may! They will also be willing to pay a premium for being present. They will be the early birds who will be the first to tie up for the World Cup Cricket (WCC).

TYPE 2 - "MAY" USE CRICKET :

These clients could include the typical FMCG clients; to whom cricket is another programme available in addition to the numerous soaps/movies/other genres to reach their consumers. These clients will be on cricket only if the buy makes cost effective sense when compared to their regular buys. These will be clients who will be amongst the last to tie up with MAX and are likely to be the "distress buy of left over FCT " clients.

These will be clients who will also adopt smart scheduling - prepone/postpone campaigns because of World Cup or avoid taking programmes that clash directly with World Cup telecast

TYPE 3 : "HOW TO" USE CRICKET :

These clients could include those who look at cricket as an opportunity to break away from the regular clutter and create
innovative / stand out ways to reach their consumer. These clients will associate with cricket depending on the "big idea on cricket " that
their agencies work out for them / channel is able to work out and produce for them. These will form the bulk of the second level clients who will tie up with WCC

Therefore, the type 2 and type 3 clients can ignore the World Cup. Also, given that most of the cricket matches are getting over by 9.30pm and the fact that some of the best prime time programmes on channels like STAR/Sun are after 9.30pm, these clients do have options to advertise other than World Cup