Whenever there is a slowdown and a belt-tightening by companies, one of the predictable casualties is the duration or length of the TV commercial. In fact, during recessionary times, average ad duration on Television plummets not only because of advertisers take lesser time to say their messages to consumers but also because of various consumer promotions that run with far shorter durations.

In the last few years, we had seen the average ad duration plummet to just above the 20 seconds mark. The fear with ad agencies and broadcasters was that if the same pace of reduction continues we will have increasing clutter and frequency of TVCs thereby reducing the effectiveness of Television advertising.

However, 2002 ended with a surprise and posted an average ad size of 21.4 seconds. But the even greater surprise has been Jan-July'2003! The average ad size during Jan-July'03 has touched a level that we haven't seen in the last 5 years! The average ad size is standing proud at 22.8 seconds, a record of sorts as shown in chart below!

The key questions that come to mind are that is this a phenomenon that's occurred due to the World Cup or does it truly signify the maturity that Indian advertisers are displaying by not falling into the Frequency trap and truly bettering their creative quality. Also, what kind of product categories have led this change?

To answer whether this is a freak phenomenon, we will have to see what happens during Festive. But if one looks at the Top 25 spending categories on Television in Jan-July 2003, we see mixed results - We see that Cellular Phone Services, Fairness Creams and Corporate Campaigns have the largest average ad sizes… however, Pan Masalas and Hosiery have the shortest ad sizes.

This festive will be interesting to analyse on whether 2003 ends on a positive note of bettering the average length of TV commercials or not. And Adex India will be there to tell you all about it!

An Adex India Team Analysis