Billions cancelled in advert spending after King’s death
AN ESTIMATED Bt4.6 billion worth of advertising spending was cancelled last month after the death of His Majesty the King on October 13, according to data from Nielsen (Thailand).
The figure was 45 per cent of the total advertising expenditure of Bt10.24 billion in the same month last year.
The media research giant reported yesterday that overall advertising spending last month stood at Bt5.61 billion.
After the King’s death, the government ordered all media outlets to drop paid advertisements, concerts and other show-business events as well as lower the tone of their entertainment-related programmes to pay respects to the much-revered monarch for 30 days.
The move hit television stations particularly hard. Paid commercials via analog TV stations dropped 60.38 per cent to Bt1.85 billion last month, down at least Bt2.82 billion from the same month last year.
Revenue from cable/satellite commercials dropped by 67.11 per cent to Bt173 million, while digital-TV advertising revenue dipped 47.83 per cent to Bt950 million.
Radio advertising revenue fell 45 per cent to Bt287 million, while magazine ad revenue dropped 38 per cent to Bt231 million. Newspaper ad spending plummeted 26.48 per cent to Bt733 million.
Online-media advertising spending dipped 10.43 per cent to Bt103 million.
Last month, only out-of-home media remained in positive territory. Outdoor ad revenue climbed 35.16 per cent to Bt469 million. Transit-media ad spending grew 9.95 per cent to Bt420 million and in-store-media ad spending jumped 6.06 per cent to Bt35 million.
10-month spending down
Top advertisers that cut their spending in October included Coca-Cola, Toyota, Tesco Lotus, Samsung’s mobile-phone unit, and Isuzu.
In the first 10 months of the year, advertising expenditure dropped 9.36 per cent to Bt|92.17 billion after Bt101.69 billion was booked in the same |period last year.
In a previous interview, Triluj Navamarat, chairman of the Media Agency Association of Thailand (MAAT), had forecast that by the end of 2016 total ad spending would fall 10 per cent compared with last year.
The MAAT forecast that ad spending on TV would drop 14.4 per cent this year, drop 6.5 per cent for radio, drop 19.9 per cent for newspapers, 26.7 per cent for magazines, and 8 per cent for out-of-home media.
However, spending online was expected to grow 30 per cent, transit-ad spending is to rise 11.7 per cent, and cinema-ad revenue to rise 3.2 per cent.
