Flat growth in ad spending on out-of-home media
Advertising spending via out-of-home media is estimated to see zero growth again in 2016, after expected flat growth to Bt9.75 billion this year mainly due to ongoing weak consumption and the slow economy, Kinetic Worldwide (Thailand) suggests.
“Out-of-home media remain a key channel to create brand awareness, recall and familiarity for consumers. Today’s consumers spend more than 10 hours a day outside their homes, up from just eight hours five years ago,” Surachet Bumrongsuk, the agency’s Thailand country manager, said yesterday.
Overall advertising spending through various media this year appears to be around the same as last year as companies cut their advertising budgets to make sure that their overall revenue remains on target.
In the first nine months, Nielsen Media Research’s data indicated, total advertising expenditure via out-of-home media, which include outdoor, transit and in-store media, grew by just 0.1 per cent to Bt7 billion compared with the same period last year.
“In this current quarter, I have also noticed cuts in advertising spending by many corporates, particularly in consumer products. Therefore, I believe that the same circumstance will be seen throughout next year,” Surachet said. He said spending this year via out-of-home media would be Bt9.75 billion, a slight increase from Bt9.74 billion last year.
The boss of the agency suggested that clients reduce the duration of their advertising campaigns on billboards or other outdoor media from three months to just one. However, under each campaign, media planners may opt to increase the number of locations to have a greater impact on targeted consumers.
“The location of outdoor media is key,” he stressed, adding that billboards in prime areas in Bangkok such as Rama IV, Sathorn, Din Daeng and Sukhumvit were still popular among advertisers, enjoying full occupancy. As such, the operators of those billboards have been able to raise their advertising rates by 10 per cent a year.
Currently, each advertiser is charged an industry high of Bt12 million per year to use billboards in those areas.
As retailers and transport infrastructure including airports expand upcountry while out-of-home media in urban areas are digitised, ad spending on this type of media is expected to bounce back by 2020.
