THAILAND: Mainstream media revenues hard hit

Magazines had the greatest decline in advertising revenue, followed by newspapers and radio

Bangkok Post
Thursday, July 16, 2009

Advertising spending in the first six months of this year fell by 5.11% from a year earlier to 41.9 billion baht, according to the media researcher the Nielsen Company.

Most media revenues fell due to the global economic downturn and local political concerns. Revenue dipped the most for magazines, down 14.81% from the same period last year, followed by newspapers with a 14.62% decline, while radio was down 13.74%.

On the other hand, ad spending on transit rose by 29.65%, followed by the internet up 9.09%, cinema up 3.26%, and in-store media up 0.25%.

One major reason why transit ads rose sharply in the first half was additional display spaces such as in Chulalongkorn University (U-Media) and around Suvarnabhumi Airport (Airport Media). For in-store media, more display spaces were installed in stores including Big C, Tesco Lotus and Carrefour.

Television, which accounted for more than half of total ad spending, also fell 1.61% to 24.88 billion baht, compared with 25.29 billion baht during the same period last year, said Nielsen.

During the first half, Unilever (Thai) Holding, the producer of consumer products such as Sunsilk shampoo and Dove soap, was the biggest ad spender even though it cut its budget to 2.319 billion baht from 2.345 billion during the same period last year.

Ranked second was Beiersdorf (Thailand), a producer of skin-care and beauty products like Nivea, which spent 993 million baht, up from 583 million, and L'Ore'al (Thailand), which spent 802 million baht, up from 603 million.

In June alone, Unilever spent 407.43 million baht, followed by L'Ore'al at 142.11 million and Beiersdorf at 131.5 million.

Suphanee Dechaburananon, deputy chairman of the media company Group M, said declining ad spending would continue in the second half as there were no positive signs of economic recovery. It is estimated that total ad spending for the year will contract by 8%.

"I think product and service producers will reconsider and some may cut their ad spending until the economy improves," she said.

Date Posted: 7/16/2009