Companies spending big via digital media

Early this year, the Digital Advertising Association of Thailand (DAAT) forecast a 38-per-cent surge in ad expenditure via digital media to Bt5.86 billion in 2014, compared to last year’s Bt4.25 billion.

The DAAT projection was based on available information and data in 2013.

In the first ten month of this year, Nielsen (Thailand) found that advertising spending via the Internet rose 5.46 per cent to Bt772 million year on year.

"Overall advertising expenditure via digital media will show better results than previous estimates," Siwat Chawareewong, chief executive officer at mInteraction, told The Nation.

Siwat said the launch of YouTube Thailand by Google was a game changer because it offered a chance for local brands, marketers and end-users to create their own video content for what is potentially a mass audience.

The CEO said online consumers were spending more time watching videos. To capitalise on this, brands could re-run their commercials as pre-roll ads on YouTube.

Siwat said that to offer the right products and services to customers, marketers and brands should focus on a mobile-based platform before applying the strategy to other media platforms.

In its study on digital media trends, leading research consultancy, TNS, revealed that more people were surfing the Net on their mobile phones, while the number of users going online via their personal computers was decreasing.

The study also found that Internet users in Thailand spend up to 3.1 hours per day on smartphones.

Interestingly, television is the only other media platform that commands a significant amount of attention in Thailand, with people spending more than two-and-a-half hours a day in front of the small screen.

The study showed that consumers spend only 13 minutes a day listening to radio and just five minutes reading newspapers or magazines.

It also found that consumers spend just 43 minutes a day on tablets and an hour and a half on PCs during their leisure time.