Companies like Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Procter & Gamble (P&G), Marico and Colgate-Palmolive reported reduced ad spends of 6%, 17%, 2% and 8%, respectively. (Representative image)
India’s biggest FMCG advertisers pulled back their ad expenditure in the December-ending quarter, squeezing ad revenues of entertainment platforms.
Companies like Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Procter & Gamble (P&G), Marico and Colgate-Palmolive reported reduced ad spends of 6 per cent, 17 per cent, 2 per cent and 8 per cent respectively. While Dabur was the only one to slightly increase spends by 1.9 per cent, the overall ad spends were muted.
The impact of this was felt by companies like Zee Entertainment that reported lower ad revenues by 9 per cent annually and 10 per cent decline in domestic advertising revenue annually due to slowdown in FMCG spending. Similarly, JioStar said TV ad market remains challenging due to spend cuts by FMCG and consumer electronics.
“GST benefits rolled out last quarter gave a boost to durables and auto sector. While FMCG was busy planning for premiumisation, the GST roll-out and Trump tariffs had them in a tight spot. They had to rethink premium products and go back to mass products and focus on Tier 2 markets. Hence, the pause on ad spends,” Ajimon Francis, Managing Director at Brand Finance India, told businessline.
Spend recovery
Despite the soft performance by brands in the last quarter, Francis anticipated growth in ad spends come Holi, as summer products also begin their campaigns following an extended winter.
Commenting on the ad spends, Niranjan Gupta, Chief Financial Officer, Executive Director, Finance, HUL, said during the last earnings call, “When you look at the 9-month of this fiscal, our A&P [advertising and promotion] to percentage revenue is 10 per cent, which is same as the previous year. On an absolute basis, our A&P has gone up by ₹200 crore approximately. If you combine that we are buying efficiencies, in effective terms, it’s gone up even more. As we move forward, we will continue to invest behind brand and there would be that step up.”
According to Parveen Sheik, Head of Business Intelligence, WPP Media, India, FMCG forms the foundation of advertising yet is expected to grow at a low 6 per cent this year.
“It is clearly not driving advertising but they will still spend because advertising is very very critical for FMCG brands. Platforms that can influence business outcomes are getting more share of the advertising pile. What we saw unravelling in 2025 is that from a brand building effort the concentration was more towards generating more sales, so you did see digital platforms gaining on the back of what TV was losing. We do feel that TV will have a major role to play even within the CPG context,” said Sheik.
Published on February 22, 2026