Live Issue... Slump forces Lion City's media titans to change course

SPH’s financial results for its first quarter has shown a major dip in earnings, hit by the ad downturn. Print ad sales declined by 7.3 per cent to S$188.2 million, led by a fall in recruitment ads. Meanwhile, MediaCorp has introduced a variety of cost-cutting measures in a bid to avoid laying off its 2,500-strong workforce. 

However, a silver lining for advertisers is that the downturn has forced both companies to raise their game when it comes to offering brands new options. “Singapore remains a very small market and the two companies are going to have to look beyond their brick and mortar businesses for growth and look at creating new properties in the digital, mobile and out-of-home spaces to sell advertising,” says Debbie Lee, MD of Green Worldwide and former English & Pockett Asia head.

Lee says both companies would do well to ramp up their still-profitable business units and to interact with consumers in different ways other than the traditional press and TV models that Singaporeans associate with the two companies. 

To this end, SPH’s Strategic Marketing Department (SMD) sees a new focus on identifying and harnessing new opportunities that arise from businesses looking to maximise returns on their marketing dollars and leverages on its strengths in print, online, outdoor, radio, consumer research, and online/mobile search among others.

MediaCorp, meanwhile, has started a one-stop advertising enquiries hotline especially for SMEs and smaller advertisers in need of “integrated media advertising”.

One industry observer believes these measures work in theory: “It’s essential for a sales force to be well-trained and truly conversant in the language of the media integration rather than just lip service. If that can be activated, it will mean an increase in profit and revenue as a smaller, leaner and more intuitive sales team is sent to the market without duplication in sales efforts.” However, she adds that the duo’s efforts to date have not been entirely convincing, citing a supposedly integrated project from one of them that still required six sales representatives to attend a single briefing and pitch meeting. “I question how effective that is and for them to compete effectively in the new media economy.” 

Despite the piecemeal nature of their initiatives, media agencies have welcomed the companies’ good intentions. “SPH’s reach remains untouchable, and it is moving on to different scopes of content and more of what local consumers are looking for. This year, it will finally advocate interactivity and integration across their many properties, which it has been promising media buyers for a long time but never truly delivering,” says one source. 

Another media buyer argues that MediaCorp has the advantage in the way it has pulled together all its units for integrated campaigns. However, there is still a long way to go. “In terms of full integration, it’s still the media agencies who have to make it work.”