Top advertisers split the bounty between TVP and Polsat

Both tends to be the decision, but the split varies dramatically. Two of the choicest accounts, Unilever and Procter & Gamble, sent much of their money Polsat's way and left TVP with some spare change.
Unilever poured zl. 50.79 million ($14.72 million) of its advertising budget into Polsat in the first five months of this year, while TVP only received zl. 31.9 million ($9.25 million), according to advertising spending figures compiled by market research firm AGB Polska. Procter & Gamble followed suit, allocating zl. 76.9 million ($22.3 million) to Polsat and giving TVP a mere zl. 2.8 million ($812,000), according to AGB.
Neither of the companies would comment on why they chose to bequeath Polsat with the lion's share of their advertising budget for TV. Media watchers, however, said that Polsat came out ahead mainly because it was willing to negotiate deals with large clients.
That will continue to play in the station's favor as advertising spending swells. Advertising spending in all media jumped 57% to reach $550 million in the first five months of this year compared with the same period in 1997, according to Amer Nielsen Research. Television attracted 66% of that money.
While Polsat's deal-cutting abilities may have put it ahead in some advertisers' minds, price is not the only issue, media planners said. Piotr Zakowski, an account manager for Schwarzkopf & Henkel Cosmetics at media buyer Optimum Media, pointed out that advertisers are usually more concerned about how much it costs them to get in front of a particular kind of viewer.
Detergent and cosmetic maker Henkel also thinks that TVP's broad appeal has its advantages. Zakowski said that Henkel sometimes prefers to air its commercials after TVP's evening news, "Wiadomosci." The company thinks that the spot gives its brand name more weight than if the spot aired during a Polsat sitcom.
Despite that Henkel still gave zl. 17.9 million ($5.1 million) to Polsat and zl. 16.7 million ($4.7 million) to TVP over the first five months of this year, according to AGB data.