Business

Friday October 23, 2009

Adex to shrink on lack of major events


KUALA LUMPUR: The domestic advertising expenditure (adex) this year is expected to be lower than the RM6.2bil posted in 2008 but the advertising industry is expected to perform better in 2010, said Malaysian Advertisers Association president Peter Anthony Das(pic).

He said total adex was expected to drop this year due to a lack of major events and the economic slowdown.

“I hope the total ad spending this year would be better than the RM5.4bil in 2007 as companies are pushing for sales by year-end and on improving market sentiment,” he told a media briefing on the Asian Advertising Congress 2009 (AdAsia09) here yesterday.

According to market research firm Nielsen, total adex in the first nine months of the year stood at RM4.73bil, or 3.8% higher than the corresponding period last year.

Newspaper adex registered a drop of 1.9% to 52.2% of total adex during the period while terrestrial TV adex showed a growth of 11% to 36.2%.

The Internet grew 4.3% to account for 0.6% of the adex pie.

Das said the industry was expected to show better results next year as the recovery in the economy continued and due to major events lined up such as the World Cup.

For the Asia-Pacific region, Das sees total adex growing a marginal 3.2%, down from the 4.6% previously forecasted.

The AdAsia09 conference, which is taking place in Malaysia for the second time, is the biennial gathering of the Asian advertising community under the auspices of the Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA).

The two-day conference, which starts today, brings together delegates from 23 countries worldwide.

Das, who is also chairman of the organising committee said of about 600 delegates expected take part in the conference, some 200 are from overseas.

“The number of delegates is encouraging given the global downturn,” he said, adding that there over 1,000 delegates at the last congress in Jeju Island, South Korea in 2007.

Speakers include Interbrand group chief executive Jez Frampton, Asian Food Channel co-founder Maria Brown, Dentsu Inc executive officer Kenji Shiratsuchi, WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell and World Federation of Advertisers president Bernhard Glock.

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