In May alone, Samsung Electronics spent 46 million baht promoting its TV sets, compared with 3.45 million baht a year ago, making it to number five on Nielsen Media Research's list of top spenders for the month.
Its competitors were also big spenders during the month. Toshiba spent 12.2 million baht on advertising, while the figure for Panasonic distributor, Siew-National, was 13.6 million baht and Philips Electronics 13 million baht.
Meanwhile, pre-World Cup jitters saw non-sponsors taking measures to protect their turf, says Siri-Orn Cherpipatana-sakul, head of media at FCB Worldwide. Nike spent 9.7 million baht battling Adidas' advantage as official sponsor, against Adidas' own two million baht spending. Samsung's adspend for the month was 13 times the 3.5 million baht of JVC. At the same time, Pepsi earmarked 400 million baht for the first six months, dwarfing Coca-Cola's 250 million baht spend.
The quest for higher visibility led several advertisers outdoors, primarily to the kingdom's transit system. Pepsi and fellow brand, Mirinda, had their ads wrapped around nine of the 35 available train bodies, while Samsung had its ads on four, says Marut Arthakaivalvatee, marketing and sales manager of VGI Global Media.
Spending on transit ads - which also include tuk-tuk and bus bodies - was up 49 per cent in May to 57.5 million baht compared with the year earlier figure. But while adspend figures are expected to be even higher this month during the World Cup, the total spend for the year is still expected to show a modest 10 per cent increase, industry watchers say.
Advertisers are dipping into third quarter budgets to take advantage of the World Cup, says Parames Rachjaibun, president of the Advertising Association of Thailand. He expects that the third quarter will be fairly quiet for many.
Indeed, Pepsi has said that its six-month football-flavoured campaign represents three-quarters of its annual budget.
The no-holds-barred mobile phone war, however, is expected to continue, with the three major players - TA Orange, GSM Advance and DTAC - firmly entrenched among the kingdom's top five spenders.
Along with TV and newspapers, smaller media have also benefited from this spending. In May, TA Orange had its ads wrapped around 15 transit train bodies, and fought Telecom Asia and property companies for prime outdoor billboard space.
Siri-Orn noted that cinema screens filled up with ads from all three major mobile phone players as they reached for a slice of the teenage market.
TOP 10 BRAND GROUP ESTIMATED ADSPEND (baht '000)
Brand May May YOY
2002 2001 change
1 Orange Mobile Phone System 68,869 - -
2 Digital GSM Mobile Phone System 60,946 48,043 27%
3 Tourism Authority of Thailand 49,077 11,528 326%
4 DTAC Mobile Phone System 48,030 36,572 31%
5 Samsung Televisions 45,960 3,452 1,231%
6 TV Direct Sales 44,914 32,603 38%
7 Chang Beer 40,943 37,662 9%
8 Singha Beer 34,139 14,288 139%
9 Toyota Pickups 33,932 19,605 73%
10 Pond's Facial Skincare Products 33,250 16,734 99%
Source: Nielsen Media Research (Thailand)
