25% jump in first-half ad spending as leading brands resume promotion
ADVERTISING spending in the first half surged 25.2 per cent to Bt68.93 billion as big brands resumed promoting their products, according to Nielsen (Thailand).
The top 10 advertisers – Unilever, Beiersdorf, Toyota, Advance Info Service, L’Oreal, Procter and Gamble, Coca-Cola, the Prime Minister’s Office, Total Access Communications and Pepsi-Cola – increased their advertising via all media channels.
Unilever (Thai) Holdings spent Bt4.67 billion in the first six months, up from Bt4.52 billion in the same period last year. Unilever was the biggest advertiser last year, accounting for 6.4 per cent of overall spending.
The research company’s survey also found that ad expenditures via digital terrestrial TV were growing exponentially – from Bt1.11 billion to Bt18.70 billion. The situation at analog terrestrial and satellite TV stations was otherwise.
Ad spending via analog terrestrial TV including Channel 7, Channel 3, TV5, MCOT’s Modernine TV and NBT declined 8.2 per cent to Bt29.23 billion, while satellite TV fell 30.3 per cent to Bt2.95 billion.
To avoid confusion in the industry, Nielsen includes all complimentary spots in expenditures via digital terrestrial TV as estimated from rate cards provided by all of the 24 stations.
Print media were also losers. Newspaper ads dropped 2.2 per cent to Bt5.98 billion while magazine ads tumbled 13.3 per cent to Bt2.03 billion.
Although Nielsen added more data from Tesco Lotus and Big C stores to its survey panels in May, advertising through in-store media still experienced a decrease of 43.1 per cent to Bt447 million.
With renewed investment from leading brands, ad spending via radio, cinemas, outdoor media, transit media and the Internet returned to growth.
Radio commercials were up 2.3 per cent to Bt2.62 billion, transit media up 17.3 per cent to Bt2 billion and cinema ads up 20.3 per cent to Bt2.11 billion.
