Transit, in-store ads lead way

However, expenditure on transit and in-store media is expected to increase sharply, by 40 per cent and 15 per cent respectively, this year.

He said the company had seen a growing trend of in-store and transit media in Thailand, driven by a huge expansion of hypermarkets as well as the expansion of BTS routes and the opening of the Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link, which will occur on December 5. These have created a huge number of advertising spaces.

"Changes in consumer behaviour have set some trends in out-of-home media this year," said Surachet.

He said point-of-sale ads were playing a major role for advertisers, and there would be more digital screens at major hypermarkets in both Bangkok and upcountry. The extension of two major mass-transit stations to the southwest area of Bangkok and new projects of Bangkok Rapid Transit and the Airport Rail Link will draw a large number of commuters to the Skytrain.

Metro buses will become a major trend for out-of-home, since they can replace billboards, with lower media costs and highly local media coverage. Ambient media are effective means at pushing a brand message in front of consumers and can develop even better top-of-mind recall with target audiences.

Surachet said out-of-home media expenditure in the first five months of the year grew by 2.4 per cent from the same period last year to Bt2.73 billion. Outdoor media contributed about 60.8 per cent, while transit and in-store media accounted for 26.9 per cent and 12.3 per cent respectively.

Outdoor media expenditure dropped by 7.7 per cent in the period. This is quite a contrast with transit and in-store media, which grew by 30.8 per cent and 9.8 per cent respectively.

Overall media expenditure dropped by between 4 per cent and 5 per cent in the first five months. While overall TV ad expenditures dropped by 0.4 per cent, expenditure on other media, such as newspapers, magazines, radio and cinema ads, declined even more heavily.

Suphanee Dechaburananon, deputy chairman and director of trading and strategy at Group M, expects full-year media expenditures to see a big decline of between 6 per cent and 8 per cent.

Given consumers' lower spending power, many companies - particularly in the mobile phone, housing estate and automobile sectors - are facing a big drop in profit.

They have also made big cuts in their budgets for TV commercials.