Ad spending grows by 3.34%, with digital TV the big winner
As forecast, advertising expenditure last year grew by 3.34 per cent to Bt122.31 billion from Bt118.36 billion in 2014, according to the latest media survey by Nielsen (Thailand).
The growth in advertising spending appeared to reflect the sluggish economy amid weak consumption.
The leading media-research company reported that advertisers continued to spend on digital television, radio, cinemas, outdoor media, transit and the Internet.
With aggressive marketing and content strategies along with affordable cost, digital TV appears to be attractive for advertisers. Throughout last year, advertising spending via this medium surged by 143 per cent to Bt20.93 billion from Bt8.58 billion in 2014.
Pathamawan Sathaporn, managing director of Mindshare Thailand, explained in a previous interview that digital television was still on the rise while analog TV channels and cable/satellite TV seemed to be hurt by the fierce competition in the television industry.
Nielsen’s latest report indicated that advertising expenditure through analog TV stations such as Channel 7, Channel 3, MCOT Channel 9, TV 5 and NBT (Channel 11) declined by 9.8 per cent to Bt57.52 billion last year, compared with Bt63.77 billion in 2014. Cable and satellite TV advertising followed suit with a decrease of 16.27 per cent to Bt6.05 billion.
The year 2015 was another bad period for print media as magazines and newspapers continued to lose market share because advertisers were likely to relocate their spending to digital media and digital TV. Nielsen reported that spending on magazine adverts fell by 14.28 per cent to Bt4.22 billion and newspaper ad spending decreased by 6.45 per cent to Bt12.33 billion.
However, out-of-home media saw growth in ad spending. Cinema ads saw an 18.05-per-cent increase to Bt5.13 billion last year. Outdoor advertising witnessed a 7.32-per-cent rise to Bt4.26 billion. Transit media showed a 17.44-per-cent increase to Bt4.77 billion, while spending on Internet ads rose by 11.37 per cent to Bt1 billion.
In-store media showed a 67.46-per-cent decline because major retailers Tesco Lotus and Big C Supercenter had pulled their data from Nielsen’s database since May.
A number of big advertisers, including Toyota Motor Thailand, the Prime Minister’s Office, Total Access Communication (DTAC), Procter and Gamble (Thailand), Cola-Cola (Thailand) and Tri Petch Isuzu Sales, increased their ad spending throughout last year. But the country’s biggest spender, Unilever (Thai) Holdings, cut its advertising expenditure to Bt7.57 billion from Bt9.08 billion in 2014.
The ad spending by PM's Office however rose sharply from Bt1.27 billion in 2014 to Bt2 billion in 2015.
