The Thai advertising industry is expected to grow by 10-15% next year and third-generation (3G) mobile services will be a boon for digital media, according to media agency Brand Connections.
This year, growth of advertising spending will be 12-14% as the economy continues to expand, said managing partner Ichaya Santitrakul.
"After the massive floods, private companies have been confident to spend their money to advertise their brands and products, and the momentum will continue into 2013," she said.
The media landscape will change next year after the adoption of 3G services, which will create new media outlets such as mobile advertising. Digital media, especially social networks, will continue to gain popularity and influence.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission will issue licences for digital TV early next year as broadcast technology moves from analogue to digital.
"It means advertisers will have more media channels to advertise their products and services to reach a wider group of customers," Ms Ichaya said.
However, television stations and newspapers will increase their advertising rates by 5-15% over the next 12 months.
During the first 11 months of this year, Nielsen Thailand reported advertising expenditure in all media outlets of 107 billion baht, a 11.4% rise from last year.
Spending on television was the highest at 62.5 billion baht, up 7.98%, followed by newspapers at 13.7 billion baht, up 5.12%, and cinema at 11.06 billion baht, up 66.04%.
Magazines saw a 12.59% decline to 4.72 billion baht. Ad expenditure on the internet remained small at only 525 million baht.
Prasert Iam-rungroj, a co-founder of Brand Connections, said the company is optimistic about the outlook of the advertising industry next year. It expects to grow billings by 15% to 2.35 billion baht in 2013.