Master Ad move lowers VGI target

 
VGI had aimed to benefit from the project during the second half of its fiscal year – October 2016 to March 2017 – but Master Ad recently notified its parent that the plan had been postponed in accordance with business sentiment after His Majesty the King passed away on October 13. 
The company has not disclosed details about the delayed project. 
Apart from this factor, VGI also acknowledged that during the initial 30-day mourning period following the demise of the King, advertisers had been putting their budgets on hold. 
However, VGI chief executive officer Surachet Bumrongsuk insisted yesterday that the company would continue driving business growth both by new acquisitions in out-of-home media and using a data-centric approach, as planned. 
For the second half of this fiscal year, he said the company would place more emphasis on collecting and analysing data from active users of Rabbit cards to help brands gain more understanding of their target consumers. 
“With more than 2.3 million active users of Rabbit cards, we will be able to transform simple demographic data into psychological data. This will be a new added-valued service for both our existing and new clients,” the CEO explained.
Besides studying customers’ journeys via the Rabbit card network, the company also plans further research of data from the 33 million users of Rabbit Line Pay and Kerry Logistics (Thailand). 
In the meantime, VGI anticipates continued growth under its synergy strategy by acquiring 90-per-cent stakes in Bangkok Smartcard System and BSS Holdings, operators of e-wallet platforms through Rabbit Line Pay and Rabbit Cards. 
“This should enable us to obtain consumer-behaviour data for analysis to ensure a better focus on target audiences and efficient ad performance, as part of moves to become a ‘data-centric media hypermarket’ and increase the number of ad viewers to 25 million per day, and the ad production capacity to Bt7.3 billion from Bt3.9 billion,” Surachet said. 
In addition, VGI stands to benefit from the decision by Master Ad to expand its out-of-home network by acquiring 70 per cent of Multi Sign, an ad-management firm with 862 outdoor ad-media platforms.
This will improve access to certain audience groups in the provinces, as its existing audiences are primarily consumers with high purchasing power in Bangkok, and create opportunities to enhance revenues from replacement of still-image screens to value-added digital ones, the chief executive said.
As a result of a decline in the advertising industry in light of recent unexpected events, Surachet said that out-of-home media business, excluding in-store media, would now see a year-on-year increase of about 7 per cent to Bt11.2 billion. 
However, he expects next year’s growth will be higher, coming in at least 10 per cent above this year’s eventual level.