Overall advertising spend in Russia exceeds 170 billion rubles. Almost 90% of this budget goes to Internet and TV advertising.
Internet penetration (daily coverage) is estimated to be around 80% of Russian population, with average on-line time 220 minutes a day. Daily coverage for TV is about 70%, with 210 minutes viewing time a day.
Internet/TV consumption strongly depends upon age. While younger people prefer to receive news and entertainment from Internet, older people traditionally watch TV more and use internet less often.
Key tools for FMCG promotion
The four most prominent instruments for FMCG advertising and promotion in Russia are TV advertising, VK social network, Yandex search engine and In-store promotions.
- TV remains core media for FMCG advertising
- 70% watch TV every day
- Average viewing time is 3.5 hours/day
- VK is the leading social network in Russia
- 47 million daily user base
- Average on-line time 19 minutes/day
- Yandex is the leading search engine in Russia
- 55 million daily user base
- Average on-line time 13 hours / month
- Price-offs are essential
- Up to 100% share of on-promo sales in some categories
- 20% minimum expected discount
Dark Marketing
Tobacco is the most restricted category in terms of available marketing tools. All types of advertising and promotion are prohibited for tobacco brands, including sponsorship, events, discounts and umbrella branding. All tobacco packs need to carry prominent health warning (picture and text). Display of tobacco products in the stores is prohibited, products are shown to customer only by customer demand.
Under these restrictions, a few available communication options for tobacco marketeers are:
- Polishing product and packaging design
- Impactful and meaningful corporate site
- “Shopper surveys” in tobacco stores
- Information e-mails to customers with confirmed proven subscription
- Indirect marketing narrative integrated in YouTube bloggers’ videos