Media firm offers more than ad space

Wiluck Lohthong, president of Siam Sport Syndicate, said that apart from providing space on pages, the company would also offer to organise events, marketing cam¬paigns and do public relations work, as well as provide production house services for creating adver¬tisements.

"When customers choose our services, they will not just benefit from published ads, but will also profit from our integrat¬ed media solutions," he added.

The com¬pany's spe¬cial strategic solutions unit, which was set up in last year's fourth quar¬ter, will be aggressively wooing customers this year.

"We have to create a competitive edge and boost revenue, especially after signs of economic and politi¬cal uncertainties last year," he said.

Siam Sport Syndicate has 30 titles, including daily sports news¬papers such as Siam Keela and Star Soccer, as well as entertainment magazines such as Siam Bunterng, FHM and Zoo.

Wiluck said the new strategy should boost the company's sales by 10 per cent this year, leading to overall growth of 15 per cent. Last year, its sales stood at Bt400 mil¬lion.

In the first half of the year, Siam Sport Syndicate had sales growth of 19 per cent year on year.

It plans to launch a new maga¬zine, Women and Home, in this year's last quarter, as well as two more titles next year.

"We spent about Bt40 million in buying the rights for Women and Home from Britain. The magazine is expected to break even in five years," he added.

Amarin Printing and Publishing launched its "total solutions" last year, and its strategy has already paid off with 10percent sales growth in the first half of this year. The advertising revenue from its magazines in the period increased by 6 per cent compared to last year, said Rarin Utakapan, managing director of the Publishing Business Division.

However, Rarin said it was too early to project growth for the rest of the year because the company's nonprinting businesses, such as training services, book fairs and overseas tours, have missed the rev¬enue target so far for 2008.