Ad spending tipped to rise by 12% this year
ADVERTISING expenditure this year is expected to grow by 12 per cent to Bt128 billion from Bt114 billion last year, but on par with the 2015 figure.
Digital terrestrial TV and online media will continue to be key drivers of the ad industry this year, according to Mindshare.
“Digital TV channels and digital-media platforms are continuing to play important roles in this industry and are still meaningful channels for marketers,” said Pathamwan Sathaporn, managing director of Mindshare, a provider of marketing and ad-media services.
Pathamawan said that by the end of this year, total advertising spending in online media was expected to hit Bt10.53 billion for the first time, an increase of 15 per cent from Bt9.1 billion last year.
Although digital media like Google and Facebook are gaining a strong presence in the industry, free-to-air TV will continue to be dominant with a 68-per-cent share of the overall industry, a slight rise from 66 per cent last year. The increase in advertising spending on television reflects an improvement in|the performance of the new |digital-TV broadcasters. Mindshare projects that ad spending on those media outlets will rise to Bt30 billion from Bt20.27 billion last year.
Phayao Thamteersoonthorn, head of TV trading at Mindshare, expects that digital TV stations with improved audience ratings will be able to raise their advertising rates by 10-20 per cent from last year’s charges on top-rated programmes.
However, advertising rates charged by free-TV broadcasters on the analog broadcasting system will remain unchanged in order to hold on to their advertisers and clients. Ad-media experts have predicted that the combined share of TV advertising expenditure on the old analog system, including Channel 3, Channel 7, the Army’s TV5 and MCOT’s Modernine TV, will continue to drop from almost 41 per cent last year to 37.5 per cent.
Meanwhile among the country’s 18 digital stations, just five – Workpoint TV, Mono 29, One31, Channel 8 and Thairath TV – have captured 70 per cent of advertising spending on this medium.
Phayao said a segmentation strategy might be an answer for those low-performing digital channels by creating unique selling points for specific audiences. They should also prepare an online strategy as a value-added service for their main programmes.
Radio and print media are still facing a big challenge this year due to changes in audience behaviour. Phayao said newspapers and magazines were continuing to decline in terms of advertising spending. Newspaper advertising is estimated to drop by 6.5 per cent to Bt9.2 billion, while magazines are likely to slide by 14.6 per cent to Bt2.7 billion.
However, this looks like being a good year for cinema ads and out-of-home media such as billboards. Cinema advertising will rise 6.5 per cent to Bt5.8 billion. Outdoor advertising will climb 13 per cent to Bt6.4 billion. Transit media will pull in Bt6 billion, a 13-per-cent increase over last year.
