Ad spending decreases by 7.6% as brands cut costs
Advertising spending slumped by 7.6 per cent last month to Bt9.76 billion from Bt10.46 billion in September last year as big brands cut their budgets, according to Nielsen (Thailand).
Analog terrestrial TV, radio, newspapers and magazines suffered a substantial drop. Year on year, ads on analog TV fell by 16.9 per cent to Bt4.41 billion, on radio by 11.4 per cent to Bt449 million, on newspapers by 14.4 per cent to Bt955 million and on magazines by 18.5 per cent to Bt379 million.
However, new media outlets illustrated another story. Increases on cable/satellite TV were 6.5 per cent to Bt511 million, on digital terrestrial TV 24.1 per cent to Bt1.64 billion and on the Internet 10.6 per cent to almost Bt100 million.
Last month’s overall ad decrease was partly blamed on spending cuts by the three biggest advertisers – Unilever (Thai) Holdings, Toyota Motor Thailand and Beierdorf (Thailand).
Out-of-home media also enjoyed better sales, with cinema ads up to Bt401 million and outdoor ads up 8.3 per cent to Bt352 million.
Due to the growth in the number of passengers, transit ads played an increasingly important role in communications as this media’s outlets saw a surge of 39.3 per cent to Bt443 million.
The Nation understands that during the first three quarters, Nielsen’s database was being revised and some information on in-store media was pulled by leading retailers such as Big C Supercenter and Tesco Lotus.
Ad outlays from January to last month showed 6.2-per-cent growth to Bt91.54 billion, which might not reflect the real situation.
Jeerawat Aniwattakarn, trading partner of GroupM, an advertising and media investment management company, said yesterday that major advertisers and brands were likely to cut their budgets this quarter to keep their profits healthy amid the weak domestic economy and lacklustre consumption.
Some clients in consumer products, automobiles, and banking and financial services are likely to diminish their budget for main media and allocate them to online media and promotions to boost sales, he said.
Recently, Group M predicted that the local media industry would face flat growth or a decline of up to 5 per cent this year due to economic pressures at home and overseas.
