The advertising industry hopes the government’s economic stimulus will increase ad spending by 4-5% this year after the political turmoil and mounting household debts took a toll last year.
"After domestic politics has been stable for a while, the economy needs some stimulus measures to recover," said Wannee Rattanaphon, president of the Media Agency Association of Thailand (MAAT).
Total ad spending declined by 2% to 132 billion baht last year due to the political crisis, which led to the economic downturn.
Ms Wannee says media inflation poses a threat this year. KOSOL NAKACHOL
Almost all media categories saw a drop in spending except transit and online media, which were on target to grow by 8% and 38%, respectively.
Analogue TV attracted the highest spending from advertisers at 48% of the total, followed by newspapers and digital TV. Cable and satellite TV saw their ad spending plunge the most at 39%.
Among big advertisers, the telecommunications sector spent massively on advertising, rising by 21% to 10.6 billion baht, followed by skincare products at 10.4 billion, public service at 7 billion and insurance at 3.2 billion.
However, categories that allocated less ad spending were property, retail, food supplements, milk and dairy products and haircare products.
The MAAT remains positive about the economic recovery and projects ad spending will grow by 4.7% to 142 billion baht this year.
Other support factors are the rise of digital TV and the proliferation of online media that has created a dynamic change in the media industry.
"Digital TV has become a colourful element for the advertising industry, making it more vibrant, as the rising number of TV programmes has encouraged viewers to turn their leisure time back to TV, which now provides more choice of content," Ms Wannee said.
Digital media are becoming more accepted among advertisers. The country is seeing a rapid growth of internet users thanks to easier accessibility, lower prices and faster speeds of internet broadband.
This year's ad spending projection is based on GDP growth forecasts of 3-4%, said Ms Wannee.
However, there are many uncontrollable factors affecting the economy including the global recession, which will hurt Thai exports, while high household debt will continue to affect people's purchasing power.
Ms Wannee said another challenge for the advertising industry this year would be higher media inflation.
Consumers today are fragmented — their behaviour is more individual due to progressive technology and niche lifestyles.
"The dawn of digital TV has made a negative impact on analogue stations, which saw their viewership drop by 4-5%, but the advertising airtime rates for analogue channels remain high," Ms Wannee said.
The 24 new digital TV channels could gain 30% viewership and are likely to increase their airtime rates soon, creating higher costs for many advertisers.
