"Digital media has been showing promising growth although its usage is still very low compared to traditional media like TV and radio," Kanokporn Nitheranont, managing director of OgilvyOne Worldwide, said last week.

"It's a good start for the media," added Mahithorn Pongsarat, CEO of Digithais Network Co Ltd.

The new media is gaining favour in the automobile, telecommunications, entertainment and consumer industries, with AIS cellular service, Axe men's deodorant, Microsoft, RS entertainment house and Nokia mobile phones as some notable champions.

Since digital media is still a relative unknown in Thailand and the ways of using it are so varied, making it difficult to track, no agency is able to estimate the exact value of the media, its growth rate or its share of the overall ad industry.

But the rough picture is that most companies in those industries would devote about 10 per cent of their total marketing and advertising budget to digital media, said Wisarn Sirijantanon, executive business director of Carat Thailand. And digital media might account for 2 per cent of overall media value, he said.

In the global arena, digital media has been playing a role for over a decade. European countries, the US, Australia, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore have already entered the mature phase.

They fully exploit digital media in various forms. Wisarn said digital media accounts for 50 per cent of all media now, and its importance would rise to 66 per cent in 2010 and 80 per cent in 2020, which makes it a huge market.

The major reason for the surge in digital media is higher Internet penetration. The Internet is the main medium for spreading digital messages through channels such as personal computers, pocket PCs, MP3 and mobile phones.

Back in 2000, Thailand had 2.3 million Internet users. That has surged to 8.4 million this year, for a penetration rate of 12.8 per cent of the total population, said Wisarn and Tiwa York, managing partner of New Media Co Ltd. Users are divided evenly between men and women.

Users aged 15-19 account for 34 per cent of the 8.4 million total. Those aged 20-29 make up 39 per cent and those aged 30-39 represent 17 per cent, while 10 per cent are surfers 40 years or older, Tiwa said, adding that they mostly tap into the Internet at their workplace, home or Internet cafe.

Changes in consumer behaviour is another key factor. People spend more time online - up 13 per cent from 1.6 hours a day last year to 1.8 hours this year. That comes at the expense of TV, the largest traditional media channel. Viewing hours have slid 17 per cent from 2.3 hours last year to 1.9 hours this year, according to Carat's statistics.

Wider area coverage of broadband networks, easier access, greater familiarity with the Net, lower age of users as well as cheaper Internet rates are five main trends easing migration to the new media, Wisarn from Carat said.

A key advantage of the new media is cost per impression. Ads or activities through digital media are a lot cheaper than traditional channels. For example, advertisers are billed Bt400,000-Bt600,000 for a one-minute commercial on TV while it can cost nothing to post a viral ad in cyberspace, which reaches the same huge audience as TV spots.

Many media agencies and ad agencies are now paying more attention to the emerging media. Some are expanding their existing digital media units and others are even spinning theirs off.

M&C Saatchi is among them. President and CEO for Asia Kim Walker said it plans to have a digital team within six months at its Bangkok office.

Associations in ad and marketing fields have urged marketers to take notice of the mounting influence of this new media and learn how to employ it for maximum benefit through seminars and workshops.

Since digital media is still at an early stage here, marketers need much education. About 40 per cent of the marketers here have already mastered the media, Wisarn said. And those who already use the media tend to increase spending and conduct various forms of advertising.

Whether the digital media market here would follow the forecast global growth rate depends on rapid expansion of broadband access, which would encourage growth in Internet users, Walker of Saatchi said.

Chaipranin Visudhipol, chairman of TBWA and president of the Advertising Association, said digital media, particularly websites, actually have one thing in common with traditional media such as newspapers. And that is content.

If websites have good content and differentiate themselves in a way that can draw attention from the targeted viewership, the channel would see huge spending on ads or activities on their sites, which eventually drives growth of digital media as a whole.

He said many websites have experienced failure in the five years since the advent of digital media as they lacked understanding of how to use the media. They are expected to know better this time.

Even if new media growth here keeps up with global predictions, Wisarn from Carat doesn't think it will brake spending within the ad industry, where most of the value is generated by traditional media such as TV, radio and billboards.

"Advertisers always plan to increase their sales every year. So ad and marketing budgets have to be increased according to the financial targets," he said.

Traditional media operators don't need to panic at the mushrooming of digital media but they should learn to understand it and gradually apply it to their channels, he said. MCOT, Manager Group and many radio stations are good examples of operators who have already adopted websites with their channels, he added.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation