The Taiwan advertising industry has raised doubts over ACNielsen's
regional adex report for 1999, which showed a 26 per cent drop over
1998.
Despite the recession and the killer earthquake last year, most agencies
in Taiwan claim to have achieved billings growth, and are insisting that
ACNielsen's figures are unrealistic.
"I don't know why negative 26 per cent growth was reported for the last
year," said Zenith Media general manager Susan Wang, noting that the
figure was not relevant to the actual scene.
According to Brain magazine's income report for Taiwan's top 42
agencies, average billings grew by 1.57 per cent and net income by 6.6
per cent, compared to 1998's 8.65 per cent and 10.57 per cent
respectively.
ACNielsen Asia-Pacific media relations director Terry Lee said: "The
earthquake took its toll on the advertising industry. If there wasn't an
earthquake, the drop would not have been as steep ... probably only 10
per cent. Whatever the feedback, we stand by our figures."
"Taiwan did indeed suffer from the (September) earthquake, but the
industry recovered very quickly," said Ms Wang, who added that Brain's
report was a closer depiction of the actual situation.
Advertising is a reflection of the economy; Taiwan recorded 5.7 per cent
growth in GDP and private consumption in 1999, according to Merill
Lynch's economic report.
Discrepancy in the research methods of the two reports may have caused
the difference, with ACNielsen accounting on media revenue and Brain
measuring agencies' income and billings.
ACNielsen's adex report was conducted by local research company
Rainmaker, with the data based on media income.
The number of media monitored by the study decreased compared to the
previous year, a factor which was reflected by the dip in the adex
report as well.
In general, MindShare managing director Jonathan Chen said, Taiwan
adspend dropped by about 6.7 per cent in 1999, caused by the earthquake
and a sluggish real estate market.
Adspend in the first three quarters grew, while the last quarter
decreased as a result of the earthquake, according to Mr Chen, who added
that media owners did not raise their ad rates in 1999.
Advertising activity picked up again after December, buoyed by the
presidential election campaigns and booming dotcom and telecom
sectors.
Zenith's Ms Wang said booking turned tight prior to the election, as
election campaigns got priority.
In addition, she noted, some commercial campaigns for products were put
on hold during the election period to avoid the resulting clutter.
Terrestrial television saw the biggest drop in terms of market share,
due to the growing preference for the cheaper cable TV, which has been
showing improved viewership figures.
Adspend in the four terrestrial TV networks decreased 20.14 per to
NT$17.7 million, while cable TV rose 14.66 per cent to NT$14.6 million, according to Rainmaker's figures.
Newspaper adspend recorded negative 10.87 per cent growth to NT$18.9 million, while magazines increased 3.61 per cent to NT$6.1
million.
Dentsu, Ogilvy & Mather, J. Walter Thompson were the top three
advertising agency in terms of income and billings, according to Brain's
report.
Local agency United Advertising dropped respectively from the first and
second positions in 1997 and 1998 to fourth place in 1999, caused by the
loss of several big accounts.
The best performers in 1999 were Ideology, with a 39 per cent jump in
net income, followed by Saatchi & Saatchi (31.23 per cent), Leo Burnett
(31.14 per cent), Toplan (30.15 per cent) and D'Arcy (28.57 per
cent).
Agencies with the biggest dip in net income were: Hsu & Chen (-40.48 per
cent), DIK-Ocean (-33.96 per cent), United-Asatsu (-19.25 per cent),
DY&R (-16.67 per cent), Geo Sun (-16.67 per cent), Golden Flower (-16.67
per cent), United (-11.54 per cent), Dentsu (-10.06 per cent), Proshine
(-7.41 per cent), Look (-6.67 per cent) Harvest (-4.42 per cent) and
BBDO (-1.96 per cent).
