Radio operators pay price as advertisers play it safe

"During the first quarter, our corporate clients have shortened their advertising contracts with us. They mostly signed three- and six-month contracts instead of the usual one-year deals," Komsan Chetchotisak, managing director of

Sky-High Network Co Ltd, said last week.

"Corporate customers are more sensitive to the economy," said Saithip Montrikul, managing director of GMM Media Plc.

They said they had to keep a close watch on the political situation, which could change at any time, as well as movements in oil prices, which could drive up the cost of living as a whole.

Komsan said the factors had caused significant worries for the growth of the radio business in the second half of this year.

Saithip said advertisers were divided into two groups: those

in consumer goods, which always have to spend to maintain brand awareness, and those in other

industries such as real estate, which would scale their ad budget up or down according to the economic situation.

Sky-High is keeping its focus on strengthening its strong brand reputation and arranging more frequent marketing activities to achieve targeted annual revenue of Bt350 million.

It plans to hold 40 activities this year, up from 30 last year.

It is also exploiting the Euro 2008 licence that its parent company bought to create contents and

activities to keep attracting listeners to its two radio stations, Max 94.5 Digital Radio and Cool 93 Fahrenheit.

GMM Media also has a plan for its A Time Media, which operates four radio stations - Green Wave, Hot Wave, EFM and Banana FM.

It will keep up its frequency in arranging marketing activities and select only those that promise good returns.

Marketers have switched from arranging marketing events for

creating brand image only to

focusing on business returns, Saithip said.

A Time Media's performance during the first quarter was a little

bit higher than targeted, as revenue grew over 26 per cent to Bt156.2 million.

"The situation is unclear, but we hope that the radio business will be good in the second and third quarters if nothing unexpected happens," she said.

All the four radio stations have strong brands, and A Time Media should achieve 10-per-cent revenue growth this year, she added.