Business

Saturday July 25, 2009

Ad spending slows down in first half

By M. HAFIDZ MAHPAR


ADVERTISERS in the country spent RM2.9bil on media space and airtime in the first half of the year, a decline of 1% from the same period last year.

According to the latest Nielsen Advertising Information Services (AIS) report, the growth in terrestrial TV, radio, outdoor, point of sale and Internet helped to offset the decline in advertising expenditure (adex) for newspapers, magazines and cinema (see table).

The Nielsen Company Malaysia Sdn Bhd associate director (media) Wong Mae Suen says in a statement that although Malaysia’s advertising market saw a slight decline in the first half of the year, second-quarter spending remained on par with the same period last year.

(Note that the advertising figures are based on published rate card, except outdoor spending, which is based on actual billings.)

“Increased spending in Government awareness campaigns on dengue and H1N1 influenza, social messages and national service campaigns, as well as continued spending on local events like the Malaysia Grand Prix and new product and service launches, have helped in maintaining advertising spending in the second quarter,” Wong says.

Classified advertising remained the number one advertising category at RM300.2mil in the first-half year, despite suffering a 17% drop in expenditure year-on-year.

This is followed by mobile line services (RM133.4mil), local government institutions (RM129.1mil), women’s facial care (RM81mil), universities (RM61.8mil), hypermarkets (RM58mil), tonics and vitamins (RM54.7mil), fast-food outlets (RM51.9mil), hair shampoo and conditioner (RM48.6mil) and airlines (RM45.9mil).

Universities moved into fifth position in the top category list from 10th place with a 40% spending increase when several colleges were upgraded to university status, Nielsen says.

Hypermarkets, tonics and vitamins, and fast-food outlets were new entrants in the top 10.

“In line with the Government’s call to lower prices in the economic slowdown, hypermarkets responded with price-slash campaigns that saw this category moved into sixth position (from 16th),” says Nielsen.

Fast-moving consumer goods advertisers were the biggest spenders, with Unilever assuming top spot with RM74.2mil.

This is followed by Procter & Gamble and Nestle at second and fourth positions respectively.

Celcom, the biggest advertiser in the first half of last year, fell to third place with its adex almost halved.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) entered the top 10 rankings at number six.

At 10th rung is another new entrant, the Health Ministry, which in response to the H1N1 influenza epidemic and dengue cases, boosted its ad spending five-fold to RM26.6mil.

“This is indeed a challenging time for all sectors, the advertising market notwithstanding.

“However, the recent economic reforms and liberalisation of the financial sector is expected to soften the slowdown,” Wong says.

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