“Consumers are always walking away from any kind of advertisement. Even though the messages are related to their interests, once they realise that the content is part of an advert, they will ignore it eventually. This is an unchanged truth,” Satit Jantawiwat, chief creative officer at J Walter Thompson Bangkok, said yesterday.

In recognition of this, ad-media and advertising agencies should put more importance on moving beyond any kind of media platforms in order to put brands and products at the top of the consumer’s mind.

“It is undeniable that new media platforms like mobile Internet, social media and video sharing are today playing key roles in the communication world. But the advertising agencies should not stick only to those new media outlets as they are quickly evolving,” he said.

Rawit Hanutsaha, whose company makes Srichand face powder, said that previously blogs were among the most influential media for cosmetic products. However, when consumers learned that the content of these blogs was advertising, they lost interest.

“As such, the bloggers are no longer influencing customers’ decision-making,” he said.

This issue will soon be addressed at an annual festival titled “13th Adman Awards and Symposium 2016”.

The theme of this year’s edition is “Some Things Will Never Change”, with two additional award categories, “Promo and Activation” and “Branded Content and Entertainment”.