Mainstream ad spending sees rare drop in April
Various reasons have been offered for the decline in advertising expenditure via mainstream media in April - the first in many years. April is usually the peak month, as manufacturers roll out campaigns to boost sales ahead of the hot season.
According to a recent Nielsen media survey, advertisers last month cut their budgets for mainstream media – TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. Advertising on TV fell 3.15 per cent to Bt5.52 billion from Bt5.7 billion; radio saw a 6.55-per-cent drop to Bt485 million from Bt519 million; newspapers saw a 0.96-per-cent fall to Bt1.13 billion from Bt1.41 billion; and magazines dropped by 18.78 per cent to Bt398 million from Bt490 million.
However, advertising expenditure in the first four months maintained positive growth of about 3 per cent against the same period last year. Ad spending via TV witnessed a 0.52-per-cent growth to Bt21.42 billion from Bt21.3 billion in the same period last year. Advertisers still give top priority to TV, with almost 60 per cent of total spending being channelled towards that media.
Meanwhile, advertising through newspapers – still ranked as No 2 in the industry – saw a 2.18-per-cent increase to Bt4.83 billion from Bt4.73 billion. Spending via cinemas was at No 3 as a priority and saw a 41.2-per-cent surge to Bt3 billion from Bt2.12 billion. Radio saw a 4.41-per-cent rise to Bt1.9 billion from Bt1.83 billion.
Following the ad trends in April, MCOT’s vice president for marketing Kematat Paladesh and Nation Broadcasting Corporation president Adisak Limprungpatanakij assumed that advertisers are relocating parts of their advertising budgets from traditional media to new media like satellite and cable TV channel, as well as digital and social media.
However, CEOs at advertising and media agencies such as McCann Worldgroup Thailand’s Monica White and JWT Bangkok’s Bob Hekkelman said that although in the first four months ad spending via the Internet enjoyed a 24.32-per-cent surge year on year to Bt184 million from Bt148 million, spending via the Internet remained limited.
Media agency GroupM’s trading partner Rathakorn Surbsuk told The Nation that the Royal funeral for HRH Princess Bejaratana Rajasuda was the main reason why spending in April this year was less than last year.
The regular TV schedule was changed during the royal funeral period so there was less available advertising airtime.
“We believe that total spending in the market would actually increase from last year when we include spending on cable and satellite TV channels,” he said.
