Outdoor advertising the biggest gainer as ad budget rises 5% in May

According to Nielsen Co (Thailand)'s report, the local advertising budget for May showed total expenditure of 10.09 billion baht, an increase of 5% compared to the previous month. Despite this slight growth, the overall industry still remains in negative territory with a 2% decline, and several media categories are yet to recover, the report said.

Television maintained its position as the top media getting a 5.65-billion-baht advertising budget in May, a slight increase of 0.4%. Outdoor advertising (signs, posters, billboards) and mass transit advertising accounted for 1.35 billion baht, showing a substantial growth of 30%. Radio had an allocation of 310 million baht, an 8% increase, while cinema advertising reached 189 million baht, growing by 4%. Although some adjustments to advertising prices, such as rate card reductions, were made at the beginning of the year, internet advertising saw a rise of 6%, amounting to 2.29 billion baht.

Only two media categories faced challenges in advertising expenditure. Newspapers, with an allocation of 228 million baht, decreased by 13%, marking a 10% decline compared to April. Similarly, the value of advertising in shopping malls dropped to 67 million baht, a 15% decrease, indicating a major contraction. In April, advertising expenditure had decreased by 8%.

The top 10 product categories with the highest advertising expenditures were: Food and beverages (1.73 billion baht); personal care and cosmetics (1.39 billion baht); retail and restaurants (823 million baht); media and marketing (453 million baht); pharmaceuticals (414 million baht), household appliances (403 million baht), financial services (382 million baht), automotive (318 million baht), government (263 million baht); and electrical appliances (258 million baht).

Within these categories, there are products that have reduced their advertising budgets compared to April. These include personal care and cosmetics, retail and restaurants, and electrical appliances. Conversely, there are categories that have shown interesting increases in expenditure, such as household appliances, which had only allocated 276 million baht in the previous month but increased to 403 million baht in May, the report said.

The government sector increased its advertising budget by 59 million baht, while agriculture-related categories saw the highest growth of 47%, amounting to 137 million baht.

The top 10 companies with the highest advertising expenditure continue to be led by Unilever, with a value of 528 million baht, surpassing the 495 million baht spent in April. It is followed by Nestlé with 235 million baht, Bayersdorf 148 million baht, Procter & Gamble 138 million baht, Master Marketing 134 million baht, L'Oréal 126 million baht, Reckitt Benckiser 120 million baht, Mono Shopping 108 million baht, GMM CJ O Shopping 108 million baht, and Colgate-Palmolive 107 million baht.

The campaign with the highest expenditure was the soy milk product “Soy Milk Latte” with 48 million baht. This is due to the company adjusting product prices during this period, which necessitated changes in advertising and marketing communications. The campaign features the artist Paper Planes, who has created new songs and generated renewed awareness about the 5-baht, 125-millilitre carton size of Soy Milk Latte.