Floods set back growth target

“Initially, we estimated at least 10-per-cent growth in advertising expenditure this year to Bt110 billion from last year’s Bt100 billion,” chairman emeritus Parames Rachjaibun said yesterday.
But after businesses and factories in key industrial estates were hit by severe flooding, some companies changed their spending plans, and some of them have postponed their marketing campaigns to next year, he said.
The government says it expects affected areas to remain under water until next month, so it should take almost half of the current quarter to solve the crisis.
Parames noted that normally, the fourth quarter is the peak time each year for advertising expenditure as companies try to boost consumption through promotion campaigns. This period accounts for about 30-40 per cent of annual ad spending.
“Thus it is undeniable that slow growth in this current quarter will lead overall advertising spending to see just growth of just 5-6 per cent to Bt105 billion, instead of 10 per cent as previously projected,” he said.
However, Sompat Trisadikun, executive creative director of advertising agency Leo Burnett, said he hoped this year’s grand event, the celebrations for the 84th birthday of His Majesty the King in December, would be a positive factor that stimulates companies to spend on advertising.
Speaking as chairman of the organising committee of Adman Awards and Symposium 2011, Parames said that despite economic slowdowns in the United States and Europe or even the flooding, advertising agencies in the Kingdom kept developing creative works. For example, in the Adman Awards and Symposium that was held by the AAT yesterday, there were 723 entries of creative works from advertising agencies, up 10 per cent from last year’s event.
He believes that this annual event will continue to raise the creative works of the Thai advertising industry to international standards as well as maintain its significance as the leading event for advertising professionals.