Thailand
Thailand: Digital ads set to surge
Digital advertising is coming fast and furious, with market research firm Kantar Worldpanel Thailand predicting the segment to become the second-largest channel this year after TV for the first time in a decade.
Aitsanart Wuthithanakul, new business development manager of Kantar Worldpanel Thailand, said ad spending via digital media has increased every year since 2012, with the value expected to surpass newspapers for the first time this year at 11.8 billion baht.
Ad spending on newspapers is estimated to dip to 10 billion baht this year.
Kantar Worldpanel forecasts media expenditure for the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector on digital media to increase by 31.4% next year to 15.5 billion baht.
Social media will take the lion’s share of digital spending with 55%.
Digital media is projected to rise from 12.9% of total advertising this year to 15.3% next year.
The key driver for digital media spending by the FMCG sector is the popularity of the internet in Thailand, said the agency.
Rapidly growing internet penetration in Thailand stems from widespread smartphone ownership. In 2017, over 83% of Thai consumers owned smartphones and they used the internet, on average, 2.3 hours per day, up from two hours in the previous three years. TV and radio usage, by contrast, either remained static or dropped during the same period.
“Shoppers consume more digital media, both in and out of the home,” said Mr Aitsanart.
Changing consumer behaviour has driven Thailand’s online shopping value to grow substantially to 4.39 billion baht, up from 916 million in 2015.
For those shopping online, 33.6% visited independent websites, followed by Facebook, Lazada and Line at 29.9%, 28.1% and 7.3%, respectively.
On the other hand, online shoppers shelled out the most on Facebook, Lazada, independent websites and Line, accounting for 34.8%, 29.2%, 27.7% and 7.4% of total spending, respectively.
Nonetheless, Mr Aitsanart said that the overall advertising industry in 2017 is yet to fully recover, as evidenced by a 3% decline in year-to-date spending.
“The advertising industry for the whole of 2017 is expected to drop by 7% to 91.2 billion baht,” he said. “But media spending is expected to rebound in 2018.”
Thailand’s advertising industry hit a record high of 108 billion baht in 2015 before falling to 97.6 billion baht in 2016, now that major consumer product manufacturers slashed their advertising budgets due to the country’s economic slowdown.
Unilever reduced its advertising expenditure to 4.49 billion baht in 2016, down from 7.56 billion in the previous year.
The media spending of Beiersdorf, the owner of Nivea skincare, declined in 2016 to 1.58 billion baht from 2.57 billion. L’Oreal reduced its adverting spending to 1.28 billion baht in 2016, down from 1.55 billion in 2015.
Mr Aitsanart projects the FMCG industry to grow only 1% this year now that sales of major product categories such as food and drink, personal and home care have yet to grow as strongly as previously expected.
Kantar expects the fast-moving consumer good business to grow by 2% next year, as household debt is projected to drop and companies are set to spend more on advertising to spur consumer spending.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1377563/digital-ads-set-to-surge