BTL Companies in India

The increasing scope of BTL advertising in India

In marketing lingo, on-the-ground events and promotions are called 'brand activation', and they generally form the largest chunk of a company's non-advertising activities. Spurred by brand activation spends, called below-the-line (BTL), are gaining share over advertising spends at several leading consumer companies.

With increasing choices, the consumer has become more discerning therefore, ground activations are gaining traction due to the added impact they give beyond the media clutter."

Today, consumers have started saying, 'show me something real. All this is translating into more business for brand activation companies in India and help them with their brand-activation strategies. Clients are questioning the delivery from plain advertising as it has its limitations and delivery from brand activation is almost immediate. It is predicted that, in the next five years, the split between BTL and ATL (above-the-line, or advertising) spends will be equal. Currently, companies spend more on mass-media advertising than on events and promotions but advertising budgets will not fall in absolute terms; rather more of the incremental allocation will be to BTL activities. Overall spends on BTL will significantly rise as people begin to see its impact.

The online marketing and social media conveys details of a product quicker than conventional advertising. The influencing touch points are shifting. The customer comes armed with his own research. So, conversion with demo and explanation has become an area of great focus.
It's also the current tight business environment, where advertising symbolizes 'theme' and BTL representing 'sales'. In a tough market, cash flows are an imperative. Thus people are putting their big bucks on BTL, and money is certainly moving from theme to scheme.
The basic idea is to engage with the consumer despite the higher costs. In case of traditional advertising on television or print, cost per contact is very low. BTL activation is costlier, but it's the quality of engagement with the consumer that makes a lot of sense.

Many big companies have been relying heavily on BTL activities in tier-II and tier-III towns. With rural consumers increasingly moving towards branded products, just leveraging mainstream media is not enough to connect with them.