April 13, 2017

Consumer sentiment curbs ad spending

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Advertising spending on all media outlets fell nearly 4.5% in the first quarter of this year due to the slow economic recovery.

According to Nielsen Thailand, total ad spending in the first quarter was 26 billion baht, down nearly 4.5% from the same period last year. Contributing to the fall of ad spending was the slower-than-expected economic improvement, while consumer spending remained weak.

The consumer sentiment is not as strong as expected as economic actors wait for the implementation of infrastructure projects, analysts said.

Among all media categories, in-store media saw the biggest rise of ad spending at 56%, followed by cinemas at 35% and outdoor media at 22.3%.

Marketing experts said brands and product manufacturers put a lot of ad spending on in-store media as it is an effective tool to convince consumers at the point of sale.

On the other hand, print media suffered the most, with magazines having the biggest decline at 36% and newspapers with 18.8% and radio with 17.3%. Online advertising contracted 10.6%.

The radio business is declining as music listeners switch to online platforms. Moreover, some radio stations have returned their frequencies to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission as the regulator has plans to do a radio frequency reallocation in the future.

Surprisingly, ad spending on digital TV continued to rise, with a 7% increase to 5.43 billion baht in the first quarter. This reflects digital TV operators' improving situation after struggling with poor performance and huge losses.

Some digital TV operators have solid audience bases that attract more advertisers. The government has also given them breathing space by delaying the payment of auction fees for a certain period.

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