“We believe the economy is now entering recovery mode after the government launched some stimulus packages to boost private consumption and spending,” Wannee Ruttanaphon, chairwoman of the MAAT, said yesterday. Khanokkhan Prajongsangsri, director for investment and knowledge at IPG Mediabrands, also thinks that the government’s spending on advertising – particularly to promote and build public awareness of the Pracha Rath policy – will continue to play a key role in the industry this year, along with infrastructure spending.

Given the prevailing economic situation, the government must take action like it did last year, he said.

“More than half of advertising expenditures from the public sector including the Prime Minister’s Office and the Public Relations Department was used for publicising and promoting ‘Bike for Mom’ in August and ‘Bike for Dad’ in December.

“This public spending was one of the key drivers helping the industry to continue to grow,” he said.

Ranked as a top-five advertiser last year, the government spent more than Bt2.05 billion on advertising, according to Nielsen (Thailand)’s media survey, following the country’s biggest spenders Unilever (Thai) Holdings, True Move, Toyota Motor and Beiersdorf Last year, the advertising industry showed a 4-per-cent uptrend to Bt132.36 billion, mainly driven by continuing growth from the digital terrestrial TV, out-of-home and digital media. Wannee said the industry expected to see a spending increase of about 3-3.5 per cent this year to Bt141 billion in line with economic growth.

Through this year, the fierce competition in the digital TV business is expected to help increase advertising investment in those digital channels offering quality programmes with clear brand positioning.

The six incumbent analog stations as well as cable/satellite operators will suffer from this development.

Ratthkorn Surbsuk, a director of the MAAT and a trading partner at GroupM Thailand, said that as a result of this development, leading digital TV stations would be able to raise their advertising rates by up to 35 per cent, while analog, cable and satellite stations would have to maintain their ad rates to retain clients. Print media such as newspapers and magazines would also have to maintain their ad rates.

Further expansion of the mass transit system, particularly in Greater Bangkok, would help boost outdoor advertising.

The rising penetration of mobile Internet and the full implementation of third- and fourth-generation wireless Internet this year will continue to drive advertising spending via digital media.