Some global electronics manufacturers renew advertising in Russia – media

Some of the world's major electronics manufacturers, which after the invasion of Ukraine said they were freezing operations in the Russian Federation, last year increased their budgets for marketing and advertising in the Russian market.

This is reported by Radio Liberty with reference to TelecomDaily data, Ukrinform saw.

Russian media name such companies as Xiaomi, Honor, Samsung, Acer, etc. At the same time, as noted, a scheme is used, according to which the advertising budget is managed by those companies’ partners, that is, retailers and distributors.

According to TelecomDaily, there were no ads for these brands in Russia in 2022, but they returned in 2023, reaching figures of 65-100% of the number of mentions that had been in place in 2021. In some cases, the indicators of companies' investments in marketing exceeded those for 2021 by 2-5%, according to the publication.

It is noted that companies that do not officially supply their products to the Russian market also invest in advertising. The Russian authorities allowed the so-called parallel import of products from companies that withdrew after 2022.

At the same time, the share of companies that ceased supplies to the Russian market is decreasing, and their place is being taken by others that pursue official supplies and increase advertising expenditures.

As reported, during the hearings in the U.S. Senate, the deputy chief of the UK-based Conflict Armament Research (CAR), Damien Splitters, said hundreds of Western and Russian companies are involved in the illegal schemes, supervised by the Kremlin, to evade sanctions and ensure the covert supply to Russia of electronic components required for arms production.