HK's 2008 adspend up 12% despite financial tsunami

Adspend had a promising start with on average double digit growth from 26.42 per cent in January to 12.60 per cent in September. April, which is usually a quiet month for advertising, saw 22.96 per cent growth thanks to the Beijing Olympics. But adspend declined sharply after that and even saw negative territory in November.

Banking, pharmaceuticals and toiletries were the top three industry spenders, with the banking industry as a whole spending HK$ 2,614 million, representing a 28 per cent year-on-year increase.

There were no surprises as HSBC, McDonald’s and GSK topped the Top 10 advertisers chart with HSBC spending HK$222 million, an increase of nine per cent year on year.

Traditional media such as TV, newspapers, magazines and radio in 2008 were similar to previous years, with TVC capturing a lion’s share of 35.02 per cent, newspapers 31.06 per cent and magazines 17.78 per cent.

However, adspend for free newspapers has increased by 22.26 per cent compared to a 3.3 per cent increase for their pay counterparts in 2008.

Online adspend saw a 9.48 per cent growth in 2008, representing 3.56 per cent of the media share, though big players such as ON.cc, Atnext and MSN tended to dominate.

Admango also noted a 25 per cent increase in adspend for outdoor media mainly due to an increase of outdoor ad space available.