Air-conditioners have emerged as the most advertised product among consumer durables in the first half of 2007, leaving behind hitherto category favourites like televisions and refrigerators by a considerable margin.

According to a report by AdEx, a division of television viewership monitoring agency TAM Media, air-conditioners accounted for a cool 14 per cent share of the advertising on TV by consumer durables companies.

The entire category of consumer durables increased ad spends on TV by 22 per cent during the period. Industry experts believe that advertising of air-conditioners has increased as it now figures among priority items in households.

According to Ajit Joshi, CEO and managing director, Infiniti Retail (the retail chain of the Tata Group), "Air-conditioners are high on the shopping list."

Air-conditioners were followed by inverters (11 per cent ad share) on the AdEX list. Traditional high spenders such as TV sets and fans were in the third position, each with a 10 per cent share.

The consumer durables industry is growing at 15 per cent and has a 3 per cent share in the overall advertising on television.  Hindi news and regional GECs are the preferred medium of advertising. The ratio in which the ads of the durables appeared on national and regional channels was 64:36. Air-conditioners, inverters, TV sets were mainly advertised on national channels while fans, water purifiers, filters, electrical switches preferred regional channels.

Prime time was the preferred time for advertising with the slot witnessing 90 per cent more advertising than the evening band.  The rise in ad spend can be attributed to Godrej [Get Quote] going on a spending spree, emerging as the highest ad spender in the consumer durables category. The company practically abstained from advertising in the first half of 2006.

"We have launched a slew of products in five categories. The operating categories have gone up and so has our spend on advertising," said Ramesh Chembath, general manager, marketing, Godrej Appliances.