MAM
US ad spend rises by 6.3 per cent : Nielsen
MUMBAI: Advertising spending for 2004 in the US rose by 6.3 per cent over the same period last year. This has been attributed to gains across major media.
Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the advertising intelligence service of Nielsen Media Research has released preliminary figures. Nielsen Monitor-Plus MD Jeff King elaborated on the findings by saying, “Ad spending was effectively spread evenly across the year. The strongest quarter was the third. That period received an additional boost from the Summer Olympics and political advertising
“The Summer Olympics, with total spending reaching over $1.8 billion, contributed to much of Network and Cable’s increase. After several years of slow growth, Syndicated TV advertising rose by 13.7 per cent. Automotive advertising experienced the largest dollar increase, with the prescription drug and credit card services categories following. These three categories contributed to an overall increase of $2 billion compared to the same period last year.”
The top advertisers: Procter & Gamble topped the list of advertisers by sinking in $3,030 million. This marked an increase of 9.5 per cent. General Motors spent $2,581 an increase of 19.2 per cent. DaimlerChrysler AG spent $1,800 a healthy increase of 34.6 per cent.
Time Warner spent $1,511 which marked an increase of just 0.6 per cent. Disney spent less on advertising itself. It spent $1,352 million which marked a reduction of 2.1 per cent. Ad spend for the top 10 companies grew to $16.6 billion, up 11.1 per cent from last year. Auto advertisers increased budgets for many of their vans and SUVs.
Product placement is on the rise: Nielsen’s product placement tracking service has noted continued growth in the integration of product occurrences in primetime network programming. with the Top 10 brands in the product placement category totaling 9,334 occurrences last year.
The top 10 programmes that featured product placements accounted for 23,526 brand occurrences. The number one brand, Coca-Cola Classic, was seen mainly on American Idol. NetZero enjoyed many occurrences on NBC’s reality show Fear Factor. On the other hand, Nike and Ford were well represented on many different programmes.
The busines based reality show The Apprentice had 4,262 product placement occurences. Fox’s American Idol had 3,065 occurences. The Amazing Race on CBS had 2,004 occurences while Fear Factor had 1,963 occurences.
Brands
Uidai partners with Google to help users locate Aadhaar centres
Verified Aadhaar centres to appear on Maps with services and access info
MUMBAI: Finding an Aadhaar centre may soon be as easy as finding your favourite café. In a move aimed at making public services more accessible, the Unique Identification Authority of India has partnered with Google to display authorised Aadhaar centres on Google Maps. The feature, expected to roll out in the coming months, will allow residents to locate verified centres quickly and confidently.
More than 60,000 Aadhaar centres, including state of the art Aadhaar Seva Kendras, will be mapped. When users search on Google Maps, they will be directed to authorised facilities rather than unverified listings, helping curb misinformation and confusion.
The listings will do more than drop a pin. Users will be able to see the nature of services offered at each centre, whether it is adult enrolment, child enrolment, or limited to address and mobile number updates. Details such as operating hours, parking availability and divyang friendly infrastructure will also be shown wherever applicable.
Uidai CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar, said the collaboration is part of the authority’s continued effort to improve ease of living for Aadhaar holders by making authorised centres simpler and faster to navigate.
The partnership will deepen in its next phase, with Uidai using Google Business Profile to manage information and respond directly to public feedback. Looking ahead, the two organisations are also exploring the option of enabling appointment bookings through the Google Maps interface, potentially allowing residents to plan their visits with greater efficiency.
Google India country head, strategic partnerships Roli Agarwal, said integrating verified Aadhaar centres would help millions access trusted services with confidence, bringing essential government infrastructure closer to the people who need it most.
If all goes to plan, a routine Aadhaar update may soon begin not with a queue, but with a search bar.
