Demand for flood info boosts TV news duration/social media

 The analysis by consulting firm Nielsen showed that six out of the ten programmes with top-ratings were Prime-time News on major Free TVs, while the other four were News Discussion programmes.  Bangkok's evacuation announcement for residents in Don Muang, Sai Mai, and Bang Plad areas received the public’s greatest attention with the spike in viewership of daily news programmes on October 27 to 27 per cent.
 Viewing time rose to 186 minutes a day in October from 171 minutes in September. In November, viewership dropped by 80 per cent due to a massive evacuation from the capital city. Also, a considerable drop in TV Commercial spots (-37 per cent) and a staggering decline in Media Spending on TV (-36.8 per cent) from October to November reflected a significant strategic pause in manufacturers/retailers’ media spending. Nevertheless, amongst all media, TV is still the top  platform with the biggest media spending, followed by Newspaper and Magazine.
 The analysis also showed that social media was a vital source of informal information sharing online, with “Roo Soo Flood” clip on YouTube ranked as the number 1 “hot topic”
 While daily news updates is the main type of information consumed via television, the topic that received the most attention online during October to November was not “news” from websites, but a humorous yet informative video clip called “Roo Soo Flood”, according to Nielsen’s social media intelligence tool (BuzzMetric). Launched on YouTube on Oct 25, the clip explained the flood situation with the help of an overnight sensation (“blue whale” cartoon) and resulted in a significant spike in online “buzz”, making Oct 25 the date when online discussions of flood-related topics were most active.
 “The flood crisis certainly changed the lives and habits of consumers in the Greater Bangkok area.  Along with a spike in the duration of daily news segments across all TV channels, consumers also flocked to social media to find information that is less formal, as well as to connect with the broader community.  As Greater Bangkok geared up to “survival” mode, Ready-to-Drink beverages, and Instant Porridge flew out of the retailers’ stores, leaving alcohol and tobacco on the shelves,” said Yongyut Ongwattanapat, Associate Director of Nielsen Retail Measurement Services Thailand.
 Consumers’ purchasing behaviour during the months of September and October was not surprising, and reflected a “back to basics” mentality - basic necessities were favoured over non-essential items. Food and snack categories saw the highest sales growth at 16.2 per cent and 13.6 per cent respectively compared to last year.  Within these categories, Instant porridge was the clear winner, enjoying a skyrocketing sales growth of 121.7 per cent. Beverage leveled out at -1.1 percent decline due to severe stock shortages of drinking water and a significant sale decrease in Functional Drinks. In contrast, Ready-to-Drink Tea recorded an impressive 44.6 per cent sales growth.
 Sales of Alcohol and Tobacco suffered the most, with a 16 per cent decline from last year, with whiskey and Cigarette taking the heaviest declines of 22 per cent and 17.7 per cent respectively.
 “This number clearly reflects the sudden shift in consumers’ lifestyle during crisis,” explained Yongyut, “People tend to fall back to the basics in the face of uncertainties and stocking up on what is needed, not wanted. We conducted a similar analysis last May during the political unrest and – despite the nature of both crises being very different, interestingly, our findings then also indicated that consumers have a strong bias towards necessities.  It will be interesting to see how soon consumers will start to shift from the current ‘survival’ mode back to normal.”