Fairness creams, the fastest growing skincare category, was also the biggest advertiser within the category on television.
According to AdEx India data, skincare advertising on TV increased by 42 per cent in 2006, with 40 per cent of the ads catering to fairness creams.
With most companies having hiked their advertising budgets during the year, the volume of advertising saw a significant jump, almost doubling from the previous year in terms of number of ads per day.
Paras Pharma, which has skincare brands such as Recova and Afterbath, was the biggest spender contributing 19 per cent to the total spend, followed by Hindustan Lever with 17 per cent. However, Ponds, an HLL brand has been accounted for separately in the study.
combined, then HLL would be the top spender at 25 per cent of the total skincare advertising on TV.
The overall skincare market is valued at about Rs 1,800 crore (Rs 18 billion), of which fairness creams comprise about 40 per cent.
Ashok Venkatramani, vice president-skincare, HLL had earlier told Business Standard, that the niche categories such as suncare, anti-ageing and fairness creams were driving growth in the category.
One reason for HLL's higher ad spend can be attributed to the number of new launches it had in the segment in 2006.
During the year, the company introduced the Ponds Age Solutions range as well as its international range of face washes.
The Fair & Lovely range too was expanded to introduce a sun block, skin clarity and men's cream.
Emami and L'Oreal, which were the other big spenders, also introduced a number of new products during the year like extensions in Emami's fairness cream range and a collagen filler from L'Oreal.
Among specific categories, face-wash saw the biggest jump in ad time compared with 2005, a 5.7 times growth in volume being recorded.
At an overall level, it was the third largest category with 12 per cent share, following medicated skin treatment products at 15 per cent.
