Advertising spending up 12.4% in 2012

Advertising expenditure last year surged by more than 12.4 per cent to Bt117.75 billion from Bt104.75 billion in 2011, leading media research firm Nielsen (Thailand) estimates.

The research based on data from various channels including radio, television, cinemas, transit, outdoor and in-store media, newspapers, magazines and the Internet.

The industry had already anticipated double-digit growth given the low base in 2011 due to the flood disaster late in the year.

Advertising spending via all media except magazines grew.

Spending on free-TV channels, namely BEC's Channel 3, the Royal Army's TV5, MCOT's Modernine TV, BBTV Channel 7 and Nation Broadcasting Television or Channel 11, accounted for nearly 58 per cent of the total last year. Expenditure on TV commercials increased by about 9.4 per cent to Bt68 billion from Bt62.24 billion a year earlier.

This was followed by newspaper advertising, which registered Bt15 billion, up by about 4.4 per cent from Bt14.5 billion. Cinema adverts saw huge growth of more than 67 per cent to about Bt12.1 billion from Bt7.22 billion as a result of the expansion by Major Cineplex and SF Cinema City both in Bangkok and the provinces. Radio adverts rose by more than 7 per cent to about Bt6.3 billion from Bt5.9 billion in 2011.

Magazine advertising was the only medium to face a decline, by more than 10 per cent to Bt5.2 billion from Bt5.8 billion in 2011.

In-store spending was the fastest-growing, surging about 69 per cent to Bt2.7 billion from Bt1.6 billion.

Internet advertising gained 22 per cent to Bt573 million from Bt470 million and transit media advanced 12 per cent to about Bt3 billion from Bt2.64 billion.

The top advertisers last year, excluding classified and house adverts, were Unilever (Thai) Holdings, Toyota Motor (Thailand), Coca-Cola (Thailand), Procter and Gamble (Thailand), Total Access Communications (DTAC), Tri Petch Isuzu Sales, Beierdorf, L'Oreal, Nestle and Osotspa.