Ad expenditure ‘could drop 10-15%’
MEDIA INSIGHT, a strategic advertising planner, says total advertising spending in Thailand this year will be 10-15 per cent lower than in 2015, mainly because of budget cuts by big spenders. Not all ad-industry observers think it will be that bad, howev
Pawat Ruangdejworachai, vice president of Media Insight, said that as a result of weak consumption, major advertisers, particularly in the consumer-goods and automobile industries, had cut their spending as sales revenues were below expectations.
“Based on our data, which exclude the combined value of house ads, discounted rates and special offers, our estimate is that this year’s actual advertising spending will drop by 10-15 per cent compared with the previous year,” he said.
“This year will possibly be the worst in a decade.”
According to research by Nielsen, some major brands and corporates cut some of their advertising expenditure and allocated some of it to new outlets such as websites and social media in the first nine months of the year.
For instance, consumer-goods trader Unilever (Thai) Holdings trimmed its spending by 35 per cent to Bt4.03 billion during the first three quarters from Bt6.21 billion in the same period last year. Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Thailand cut its communication budget by 18 per cent to Bt1.8 billion.
Pawat’s outlook is gloomier than a projection by the Media Advertising Association of Thailand early this week. MAAT president Triluj Navamarat said Thai advertisers were likely to be more confident with their spending in the remaining months of the year.
“We believe that this year’s advertising expenditures could end up with a drop of 5-6 per cent from last year’s figure,” he said.
He believes that advertising spending in the rest of this year could pick up after hitting rock bottom with a drop of almost 8 per cent in the first half.
