Main advertisers on TV: light/food industry and politicians (and the more frequent the elections – the more profitable and better for the media).
Advertising: growth or stagnation
The difficult economic situation in the country did not affect the advertising budgets of Ukrainian companies. The stability of 2016 had a positive impact on the Ukrainian advertising market: the All-Ukrainian Advertising Coalition recorded an increase in advertising budgets of 28%, which turned out to be the most joyful event for marketers over the past 14 years.
The growth of radio advertising is being driven by alcohol companies, drug manufacturers, and the trucking industry. The result is an increase in the cost of services on almost all radio stations. Fluctuations in economic sectors have a direct impact on the dynamics of media advertising: the financial segment experienced a 29% drop in the beginning of 2016 – advertising expenditures decreased, especially in the press – by 18.5%.
Banks spent 35% less on TV advertising in 2016 than in 2015. The largest advertising campaign budgets in the first quarter of 2016 were spent by:
And here on radio UAH 3.4 mln was spent on radio. The most part was sponsored by Bank Mikhailovskyi (UAH 398 th.) and Kapital pawnshop/Partner pawnshop (UAH 553 th.).
Increased activity in the advertising sphere and increase of advertising budgets was observed among pharmaceutical companies: 600% budget growth on radio thanks to NaturProduct Vega (UAH 4.3 mln) and Berlin Chemie (UAH 1.9 mln), while TV sphere received UAH 353 mln, most of which belongs to Pharmak (UAH 40 mln) and Sanofi Aventis (UAH 23 mln).
Retailers have also become active, having invested about 12 million UAH in radio. The most active are Foxtrot (770 thousand), Epicenter (762 thousand) and rozetka.ua (715 thousand). And retailers spent more than UAH 50 mln on TV.
Many media experts note that, although Internet coverage in Ukraine is inferior to television, but commercials are moving to the Internet from non-costly television, where a second costs about 300 dollars.
Advertising campaign in Ukraine: the biggest TV advertisers
Pharmaceutical industry
At one time P&G was the leader in the advertising market, but for two years in a row (2015 and 2016) it has lost its first place to Nestle&L’Oreal. Mondelez Ukraine also made it to the top three. And four companies with purely Ukrainian capital made it to the top 15 advertisers.
The biggest advertisers are pharmaceutical, alcohol and food companies, but cosmetics and entertainment companies are steadily catching up.
It is worth dwelling in more detail on the pharmaceutical industry as the leader in TV advertising – a quarter of TV advertising airtime is taken up by medicines. At the end of 2016, companies invested more than 400 million dollars in TV advertising. The top advertised drugs in 2016 were drugs of the groups:
Foreign companies make significant contributions to the development of the TV advertising market: 52.3% is the contribution of foreign companies against 47.7% of domestic companies.
Beer advertising ban: two years without beer
The ban on beer advertising removed “Lvivske”, “Slavutich”, “Obolon ” and others from the screens. This led to the activation of purchases of sponsorship projects, thus replacing direct advertising. And although “Lvivske” got out of it by launching “Lvivska brewery” advertising, but most reduced purchases of video advertising by 80% in 2015 on TV, and in 2016 there was already an increase of 25%. But it is impossible to know exactly how much is spent on advertising by the largest beer producers “SUN InBev Ukraine” and Carlsberg – it is a trade secret.
This ban from the parliamentarians ended up with a colossal amount of tax shortfalls from the two largest sectors of the Ukrainian economy – brewing and TV.
Advertisers on radio and in the press
2016 showed that the largest advertising budgets were for Hit FM, Russkoe Radio, Lux FM, Autoradio and Shanson radio stations. In the press, the glossy magazines Elle, Vogue UA, “XXL. Men’s Size”, L’Officiel and “Caravan Stories”.
At the same time, the biggest advertisers on the radio were: distributor of medicines and cosmetics Natur Product Vega, jewelry factory Zolotoy Vek (Golden Age ) and food producer PE Viktor & K (Korolivs’kyi Smak).
And the biggest advertising revenues can boast publishing houses Burda Ukraine (Liza, Otdokhoni, Dobrye Advice, My Child, Playboy, AvtoMir), Hearst Shkulev Ukraine (Elle, Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Harper’s Bazaar), Edipress Ukraine (VIVA, Sole), UMH (Korrespondent, TeleNedelya, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Argumenty i Fakty) and Segodnya Multimedia (Segodnya, Vogue). At the same time, the biggest press advertisers are L’Oreal, Olfa Pharmaceutical Company, Seldiko, Chanel, Arena.
How much does an advertising campaign cost: the silence of politicians
Campaign finance in Ukraine has always lacked transparency, so only politicians (or maybe they are out of the loop) know exactly how much money was spent and where it came from.
According to a joint investigation by Depo.ua and the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, political parties registered for the 2015 local elections spent a total of at least $82m.
The authors of the study calculated the average cost of direct and hidden advertising, salaries and the cost of bribing voters.
For example, they calculated that in the last two months before the election, all parties pay for outdoor advertising about $4.8 million dollars, buying about 75 percent of the 20,000 billboards nationwide.
In order to to promote themselves on TV, politicians have spent about $36.4 million to promote themselves on television . Они также paid about $10.9 million for online ads and about $13.6 million for radio ads . Предвыборная агитация в прессе стоила всего около $910 000.
However, the report does not analyze the sources of funding.
While UKROP said it had allocated about $4 million dollars for a nationwide advertising campaign, Serhiy Kaplin, leader of the Common People’s Party, said only that they had spent “several hundred thousand hryvnias.”
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko spent more than $595,000 to be re-elected, paying for everything out of his own pocket, according to his press service.
But figuring out the origins of money for political ads is difficult.
The “buckwheat” system is a thing of the past. The trend of the past elections was “good deeds”: new playgrounds, paved paths and repaired roofs. The cost of all the works could be estimated by the customers themselves (but they will not share it with the public).
It is worth remembering that advertising is divided into official and unofficial. For example, we can use official billboards: the monthly rent of one billboard is 3,500 UAH, during the election campaign 75% is bought out (about 15 thousand planes). At the same time, for two months the amount is about 100 million UAH, but it can reach a quarter of a million UAH thanks to shadow billboards, the number of which in some cities reaches 30% of all advertising space.
Another reason for incomplete or not entirely accurate information is that voter processing began in the spring of 2015.
When preparing for the Rada election, parties are sure to spend at least 50 million hryvnias – if the amount is less, they will be lost among their opponents. Solidarnost, Nashe Krai, Vidrodzhennya and UKROP have the most expensive advertising campaigns.“Vidrodzhennya” and “UKROP” are Kolomoisky’s projects. Of these, the first is for sentimental lovers of the past, and the second is for patriotic progressives.
Boris Filatov, a candidate for mayor, and today the mayor of Dnipro, can boast of the most expensive pre-election advertising campaign. No one can calculate all expenses (the program “good deeds”, media support of “1+1”, websites, etc.). But the number of dollars of Kyiv mayoral candidate Serhiy Dumchev has been calculated – the amount reached 5 million dollars.
As you can see, an expensive ad campaign doesn’t guarantee a win. И the most notorious failure of recent years was Korolevska’s “Forward, Ukraine!” project, which spent about 300 dollars per voter.
Unfortunately, elections in Ukraine are among the most expensive in Eastern Europe. And instead of spending this official 2 billion from the party and 1 billion from the state to build a decent nursing home, this money goes into the sand, so that the new representatives of the government, who got their hands on the trough, beat them back in a short period of time.
We at KOLORO Branding Agency don’t help politicians, but we will gladly help you organize an advertising campaign for your product or brand!
