The Aegis-owned research agency said Media Atlas had been created to overcome a 'sampling blindness' in terms of the media habits of affluent consumers. It employed computer-assisted telephone interviews, or CATI (the same methodology used for PAX), and was supported by the Media Agency Club (MAC) of Thailand. Divided into three income classes, 'A' (over 50,000 baht, or US$1,225, per month) to 'C' (20,000 to 39,999 baht per month), the survey revealed the upscale 'A' class was 31 per cent of the population aged between 18 to 64. Previous industry estimates put the number at less than half.
"I think the word 'seismic' could be used to describe what we've found, in that it fundamentally changes the landscape of consumers in Bangkok," said Steve Garton, Synovate director of media research, Asia-Pacific.
"We can see there are far more affluent people than was previously believed, so all of a sudden that's going to focus the attention of marketers on this important group," he added.
The survey also found that 73 per cent of Thai men and women read a mass circulation newspaper, while 20 per cent read a Thai business newspaper. "Print, particularly magazines, which were the poor relatives with a low show of advertising spend, can now show that they're reaching significant target audiences."
Garton said previous numbers could have been skewed to underestimating the 'A' class population, because of different methodologies.
Universal McCann Thailand MD and chairman of MAC Sakda Preechawipat said more information on the 'A' and 'B' classes was overdue. "We need more research because there is no other source of media data available, but Nielsen," he said. "I believe this survey will be a controversial topic, as the readership data reported in Media Atlas is much different from Media Index."
