Ad spending recovers

Advertising expenditure last month bounced back better than previously estimated, recovering from the impacts of the recent massive flood, an ad agency and a television broadcaster reported.

Parames Rachjaibun, chief executive officer of Turnaround Focus and chairman emeritus of the Advertising Association of Thailand, said he began to see positive signs in the advertising industry in mid-December after the flood receded. That month's uptick allowed overall ad spending for 2011 to increase by 3.6 per cent to Bt104.6 billion from Bt101 billion in the previous year.

In January, advertising agencies witnessed spending return to normal, likely as a result of new marketing budgets in addition to those postponed from last year.

Parames hopes to see more improvement through the end of the current quarter, particularly as the real-estate and automotive sectors advertise to drive sales in the following quarters.

Meanwhile Kematat Paladesh, vice president for marketing at MCOT, said the company had seen advertising return to 80-90 per cent of the normal level at Modernine TV last month. However, he believes that things won't be completely back to normal until the second quarter, when government ministries and agencies start spending their budgets and some populist policies come into effect.

Nielsen research found that during the flood crisis from October to November, automotive companies increased advertising spending by 70 per cent from the level between April and June after the tsunami hit northern Japan. It also reported that auto firms had also changed the way they communicate with customers.

For example, auto-makers expressed concern and provided assistance to customers during the flood crisis. Nielsen found that one-fourth of survey participants were more satisfied with this communication strategy than with discount offers or promotion campaigns.