Country music legend stars in top two most recalled brands

What jumps out immediately from Media's second Adwatch survey in Thailand is that the two best-recalled TVCs both feature local country music legend Ad Carabou.

Chang Beer and Carabao Daeng Energy Drink - the latter is the singer's own business venture - tied for first place in the survey, cited by 98 per cent of Thais polled. Respondents point out that while Ad Carabou's enormous popularity was the number one factor in each case, each brand also benefited from the impact of the other by having the same celebrity on board.

Both ads also won over Thai hearts and minds by focusing on national pride - in the Carabou Daeng ad, Ad Carabou talks about Thai heroes across history and how the drink represents the fighting spirit of Thais. In the Chang beer spot, Ad Carabao sings about the courage and generosity of Thais, and how they work to preserve the good in their homeland.

Thai celebrities also feature in the next three best-recalled ads - M-150 features four local pop singers, One2Call GSM has Thai football player Leesaw, while Singha beer is fronted by three movie stars.

The heated battle for a slice of the 14 billion baht (aboout US$325 million) energy drinks market during the last quarter of the year appears to have had an impact with viewers. All three energy drink brands reached out to their target markets with music: while Carabao Daeng targeted fans of Ad Carabou's "songs for life", and Red Bull's Luk Tung targeted country music fans, M-150 cast its net out for pop and rock music lovers.