MOSCOW: Global brands are dominating the Russian ad market, with Procter & Gamble (P&G), L'Oréal and Mars the three firms with the largest budgets in 2011.

New data from AdIndex, compiled in partnership with Kommersant using data from TNS Russia and AKAR, show that last year's top seven advertisers in terms of budget are all foreign-owned, with the top-ranked Russian firm, mobile phone operator MTS, coming in eighth place.

P&G retained its top ranking from AdIndex's 2010 list, spending 8.9bn roubles on marketing last year, an annual increase of 18%. Of this total, 7.8bn went on TV, up 24%.

L'Oréal, in second place, reduced its budget by 6%, spending 4.9bn roubles in 2011.

The results were derived from TV, radio, press and outdoor ads only – as these were the channels that were independently monitored.

Of Russia's 25 largest advertisers, the single biggest gain was made by Novartis. The Swiss-owned pharma brand made a big push in 2011, upping its budget by 156%, and rising from 36th place on the rankings in 2010 to 13th place last year.

M.Video, a Russian chain of electronics stores, also rose from 23rd to 21st place after a 44% annual budget increase, while Coca-Cola upped its spending by 42%, rising from 19th to 15th.

By contrast, soft drink rival PepsiCo reduced its budget by 19% in 2011, dropping from 13th to 22nd on the rankings. AdIndex said that this fall was mainly due to cuts in the firm's TV budget.

Data sourced from AdIndex; additional content by Warc staff