Thailand, Singapore rebound from slump with '99 adex growth

Forecasts are for even better times ahead for Thailand and Singapore, where annual advertising expenditure in '99 grew nine per cent and three per cent respectively over the previous year. Thailand's advertising industry continues to recover as total billings for 1999 exceeded 41,568 million baht (US$1.1 billion), up nine per cent from 1998, according to the Advertising Association of Thailand (AAT). Press advertisements grew the fastest, up 39 per cent to 8,113 million baht in 1999. AAT president Pornsiri Rojmeta predicted 2000 would be an even better year for Thailand's industry, with growth between 10 and 15 per cent. However, she hoped that growth would not be higher than predicted, because that would be detrimental to the sector's future. "I would hate to see growth figures jumping from between 28 to 32 per cent each year like during the economic boom in Thailand. "It was not good for the industry and affected the professional quality of the industry as there was no time to train new staff," she said. After experiencing negative growth for the first three quarters last year, Singapore adspend picked up significantly in Q4, with a 21.8 per cent increase over the same period in 1998. This brought overall growth for the whole year to nearly three per cent, reaching a total of S$1.22 billion - in 1998, the market shrank by seven per cent. "Key players are re-evaluating their advertising investments for 2000 in the light of deregulation and increased competition," said ACNielsen Singapore/Malaysia managing director and chief client service officer Lennart Bengtsson, who said the finance, Internet and telecommunications sectors would "lead the charge into further recovery" this year. OMD Singapore general manager Gan Boon Guan said the final result showed a return to confidence among advertisers in the Lion City. "There is improved optimism compared to a year ago, when everyone was adopting a 'wait and see' attitude," he said. Mr Gan said the entry of new brands into the market this year would ensure even healthier growth in terms of adspend. Telecommunications giant SingTel was the biggest advertiser of 1999, recording S$39 million in adspend. Direct competitor M1 spent S$20 million. With the Singapore government bringing forward to April the full deregulation of the telephone market, the telecommunications sector is poised for even more heated activity. "We have already seen some very aggressive advertising from StarHub in print and radio since December, months ahead of its official launch in April," said ACNielsen's Mr Bengtsson. Several product categories in the top 10 rebounded strongly, registering double-digit growth; these included retail, banking and investment, computers, media, and pharmaceuticals. However, the property category remained soft, declining for the second consecutive year to register a drop of S$15 million. Newspapers saw six per cent growth and commanded a 50 per cent share of the market; TV's share dropped three per cent to 33.6 per cent. Poster ads were the best performer in terms of growth, up 20 per cent over 1998, edging share of market to three per cent. Both magazines and radio also improved, splitting the remainder of the adspend pie between them. Internet companies in Singapore increased their advertising spend by 100 per cent last year, compared with 1998, according to analysis provided by OMD. The total spend in this category was more than S$15 million, of which a major portion went into a combination of television and print advertising. The top Internet advertisers were ISPs Singnet, Magix, Pacific Internet and newcomer StarHub. Together, they contributed to half of the total spend in this sector. - Additional reporting by Tom Racette, Bangkok THAI ADSPEND (1999 vs 1998 in Baht '000s) Year -on-year MEDIA 1998 1999 change (%) TV 25,379,157 26,032,304 3 Radio 3,386,429 4,111,365 21 Press 5,851,401 8,113,059 39 Magazines 2,083,382 2,011,947 -3 Outdoor 1,220,135 1,042,385 -15 Cinema 174,529 257,745 48 ALL MEDIA 38,095,033 41,456,796 9 Source: Advertising Association of Thailand

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