Telecom sector leads with Bt974m ad spending last year
AS DIGITAL media play a significant role in marketing and communications, both international and local brands are allocating more advertising money to digital channels.
UK-based BusinessInsider.com reported recently that Unilever, a global FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) giant, spent about 20 per cent of its overall marketing budget in 2014 on digital, up from 17 per cent in 2013.
“From our point of view, this was a good initiative by the FMCG giant. However, digital advertising spend by Unilever (Thai) Holdings has [been less aggressive] because Thai digital consumers are in the developing process,” Siwat Chawareewong, president of the Digital Advertising Association (Thailand), said recently.
A survey conducted by the DAAT and TNS Thailand suggested that in this country, the telecommunications sector at Bt974 million led the way in online advertising spending last year, followed by automotive with Bt918 million, skincare with Bt595 million and dairy products with Bt567 million.
To cash in on the emerging popularity of digital-media consumption, Punthree Athayuti, senior brand manager for the biscuit unit at Mondelez International (Thailand), said her company had shifted its advertising budget from print to digital media to promote the Oreo brand two or three years ago. This year, the company is allocating about 30 per cent of its advertising budget for digital marketing strategies, while the rest will be for television, which remains the key medium to reach mass consumers.
“The key online marketing strategies aim to communicate with target consumers via social media like Facebook, Line and Instagram. On top of that, the|company will use an interactive online platform via www.letwonderout.com,” Punthree said.
TOA Paint (Thailand) is among local brands keen on rolling out an online marketing strategy. Puangpen Saengphet, vice president for marketing, told The Nation that the company realised the importance of online media, so it had set aside about 30 per cent of its total advertising budget for online.
This year, TOA has earmarked about Bt1 billion for marketing and communication strategies across the country. Half of that will be used for online and offline advertising, marketing activities and sales promotions, and the rest for co-promotion with dealers, distributors and product consultants.
Siwat projected that within two years, spending on digital advertising could outpace that on print media.
The DAAT also forecasts that spending on digital advertising will increase by 23 per cent to Bt9.927 billion this year from Bt8.064 billion in 2015.
