BENGALURU: Baba Ramdev has been taking on the might of the existing biggies in the Indian FMCG and related spaces right from the launch of his company Patanjali Ayurved Limited. He has been the face of many of the communications of his company cautioning Indians about the second East India Company, speaking of the benefits of his products, conveying messages by featuring as a brand ambassador of his company through television and other advertisements.
Until weeks 1 to 25 of 2017 (Saturday, 31 December 2016 - Friday 6 January 2017 until Saturday, 17 June 2017 to Friday, 23 June 2017) Patanajli was amongst the Top 10 Advertisers Across Genre : All India (U+R) : 2+ Individuals as per Broadcast Research Audience Council of India (BARC). Though never the top advertiser in any week, for that this the bastion of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Patanjali Ayurved did manage an astounding 589,971 television ad insertions until 23 June 2017, or the last day of week 25 of 2017.
After week 25 of 207, the company was missing from the top 10 advertisers list in weeks 26 and 27, it re-appeared in the top 10 weekly lists in weeks 29, 30,31 and 32 before missing out in weeks 33 and 34 of 2017. The company has again reappeared in the top 10 advertisers lists in week 35 of 2017 at seventh rank with 19,121 insertions.
Despite missing from the lists for four of the 35 weeks of 2017 that have gone by until now, going by the BARC’s weekly data when Patanjali Ayurved was present in the top 10 advertisers list, it is still the fifth biggest advertiser in terms of insertions in 2017 until week 35. Since BARC’s list in the public domain is limited to data for the top 10 advertisers, Patanjali Ayurved’s insertions will be more than the total of 703,706 insertions if one were to add its insertions for weeks 26, 27, 33 and 34 of 2017. This puts the company ahead of multinational FMCG players like Procter and Gamble, Colgate Palmolive (India) and Smithkline Beecham and even the Indian FMCG and tobacco giant ITC Limited.
Please refer to the list of top advertisers in 2017 until week 35 compiled from BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 advertisers. Please note that the actual insertions could be more, or there could be other players that have advertised more, but have not appeared in the BARC weekly lists:
Has Patanjali Ayurved met with expectations of industry pundits in terms of revenues? Going by industry reports, yes and more! A Wikipedia listing of the company says that Patanjali is the fastest growing FMCG company in India. It is valued at Rs 30 billion (US$ 470 million) and some predict revenues of Rs. 50 billion (US$780 million) for the fiscal 2015–16. A Business Standard (BS) article says that Patanjali Ayurved’s revenues more than doubled for fiscal 2016-17 to Rs 105.61 billion. The BS article quotes Yoga Guru Ramdev: "We would grow more than double this year... By next year, Patanjali would be in the leading position and in most of the product categories, it would be number one."
