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Published on December 12, 2007

Mass-market products targeted at grass-roots folk will remain caught up in the same slowdown as this year.

"The economy next year will recover, due to a clearer political outlook, but only urban consumers will have the confidence to increase spending, while grass-roots people will still not feel confident about high spending," she said.

Products for urban consumers include cosmetics and skincare items, while those targeting grass-roots consumers include energy drinks.

In terms of media consumption, the Internet will continue to gain higher consumption, while newspapers will experience a slowdown, because advertisers tend to limit their budgets to advertising in core media channels like television and radio. Meanwhile, cinema and out-of-home media will continue to grow rapidly, due to a small current base.

She also said the government would start spending more on building consumer awareness.

She predicts media consumption will grow about 5 per cent to Bt90 billion this year, driven partly by this month's general election and festive-season ads. Media consumption already increased 1 per cent in the first 10 months of the year.

Zenith Optimedia Thailand attracted one new corporate customer - L'Oreal (Thailand) - in addition to current customers Hewlett-Packard, Red Bull, Maybelline, LVMH, Carrefour and Syn Mun Kong Insurance.

The company has targeted overall billing of Bt1.7 billion this year, up 50 per cent from last year. It is targeting a 20-per-cent increase for next year.

Preeyada said companies today focused on maximising their profits and spending money on advertising rather than expanding market share.

The company has a tool called Touchpoints, which determines which communication channel best fits each product or service and the best budget allocation for those channels. It is designed to measure and compare the effectiveness of all communication channels using the same measurement metric.

The tool has been used by Zenith Optimedia globally since 2003 in 36 countries covering 140 categories, but the company only started applying the tool in Thailand this year, with two corporate customers that Preeyada declined to name. Each project requires at least a Bt1-million budget from the customers and a working period of three to six months.

She said providing the service would add value to the company, allowing it to be more than simply a media-planning agency that helped advertisers buy ads in each channel at the cheapest prices.

Nitida Asawanipont

 The Nation