The latest Nielsen Media Research data shows that significant growth in advertising targeting men, and ads promoting international tourism, helped drive up total spend to Rmb 143.4 billion (US$17.7 billion) in the first six months of the year, up 20 per cent on the same period last year.
The data is based on published ratecard, and while critics of the system say the actual amounts spent are not reflected in the data, they agree that growth in spend is huge this year, and that the way ahead is still up. Pharmaceuticals are the biggest-spending sector at Rmb 30 billion, followed by cosmetics and personal care at Rmb 27.5 billion.
The rise of the modern male consumer has led to increased adspend on men's cosmetics of 60 per cent in the first half of this year compared to a 10 per cent rise in spend on women's cosmetics, and an 80 per cent rise in spend on men's fashion and accessories advertising, at a time when spend on the same products for women fell by more than half. "Manufacturers are aware of the huge market potential and are pouring money into it ... especially advertising on the sports channels," said Nielsen client service director Rita Chan. Travel advertising has also shot up, by 30 per cent in the first six months of the year, despite a lull following the tsunami in December. Tourist boards such as Singapore and Australia, for instance, have increased their TV adspend by 187 per cent and 250 per cent respectively.
The overall growth comes despite significant cutbacks in some sectors, most notably automotive, facing higher fuel prices, and tighter controls on personal borrowing.
Alex Abplanalp, CEO of Zenith Media China, said the ratecard-based data "bears little resemblance to reality", given that there is a huge amount of discounting across all media and particularly on television time -- which gets about 80 per cent of the total adspend pie. But the agency, using State Administration for Industry and Commerce figures, still clocks spend growth in the double digits, up 11 per cent on last year and forecasts growth for the full year 2005 of 14 per cent. "The fastest-growing categories such as personal items, leisure and financial services are still comparatively small but will increase in share over the next few years," he said. "China will become the sixth largest ad market in the world this year."
