Daily Research News Online no. 5343 - Asian Advertising and Media Surveys

Asian Advertising and Media Surveys

March 28 2006

Estimated advertising spend across the three core media - television, newspapers and magazines - reached a record $US68.6bn across 12 key Asia Pacific markets in 2005, according to the latest data from Nielsen Media Research. Meanwhile Asian business leaders' Internet usage is increasing but so is print media use, according to Ipsos Media's ABRS.

Nielsen / Advertising Spend

The overall surge of 15% in ad spending was fuelled by growth in nine markets, and buoyed by especially strong growth in Australia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and China.

According to Richard Basil-Jones, Managing Director of Nielsen Media Research, Asia-Pacific, 'Although there were indications that some markets were easing in the second half of 2005, sectors like FMCG sector and Retail across the region were extremely active.'

Basil-Jones says India has particularly strong potential for the advertising sector. 'Almost two thirds of the GDP is domestic-driven, which has helped economically cushion the impact of global fluctuation; while direct investment abroad reached $1,547 MM in 2005. Fuelled by the rapid rise in the retail sector starting mid 2003, the IT and real estate boom, the potential for the advertising market is simply huge.'

[pie chart]

Television accounted for 66% of main media spending across six countries, but Newspapers, with a 29% share of overall ad spend, was the dominant medium in India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In 2005, ad spend in India recorded a 10% increase at US$2,590MM. Newspapers have a 43% share.

'Food and beverages' topped India's ad spend list in 2005 with $236m spending and a 21% increase on 2004. Personal Care/ Hygiene ranked second with a spending of $187.4m and Automotive closely followed at $183m. An interesting trend emerged with advertising on the Media sector recording the biggest growth of 48% versus other categories in the top 10, taking it to 4th position.

Pepsi still made it to the number one position as the brand spending the most on advertising (US$13.9m) in 2005, despite rival Coca Cola investing 50% of its total annual advertising budget in the fourth quarter, perhaps a sign of things to come. Pepsi was only marginally ahead of telecom brand Artel Cellular Phone Service: seven of the top 10 brands in India were local players.

TV ownership in India is rising fast, as is the number of multiple TV set homes. 'The rapid development and ever growing competition in the media market are self-explanatory, given that today's 306 TV channels grew out of only two in 1990 and the strong support from local government who has just approved 70 new FM radio licenses - until recently there were only 13 FM stations across four metro cities' says Basil-Jones.

[2 India charts]

Nielsen Media monitors advertising activity across 12 key markets in the Asia Pacific region: South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Note that ad spend data monitored in each country varies in terms of total number of media sectors covered and methods of estimation. See NMR's own site for more detail when making year-on-year comparisons.

Nielsen Media Research is part of VNU Media Measurement & Information and is online at www.nielsenmedia.com

Source: Nielsen Media Research

Ipsos / Asian business Readership Survey

Readership of international business publications in Asia is on the rise, according to the latest results of Ipsos Media's ABRS, the biennial survey of the media habits and spending of the continent's top business executives.

Overall readership was up for the first time in several years, with readership of any international weekly increasing by three percentage points on 2004, to 42%, and overall international readership increasing by one point to 62%. Titles showing significant growth include: The Economist, up five percentage points to 15%; The Wall Street Journal Asia, up four to 20%; and Forbes, up three to 13%.

The survey has been extended to measure a broader range of media, including TV and Internet use and gather more qual information.

Asia's business elite is also turning to the Internet more than ever. Nearly a third of senior execs buy online and 37% of respondents say it has changed the way they use publications - but it is clear that this is still leaving plenty of room for more traditional media consumption.

While nearly three quarters (74%) agree the Internet is good for business news updates, (+3 since 2004) and 71% believe a web site is an important part of a business publication's overall offering, but less than half (47%) say they use a business publication's web site as part of their daily routine.

Ipsos MORI Media AD Simon Staplehurst says 'What we are seeing is not the simple exchange of one medium for another but, with usage and readership up across the board, a desire for richer sources of knowledge and business information drawn from both print and online. The challenge for publishers is to present the right material in the right format and to continue to make news and information compelling on an instant by instant, day by day, weekly and monthly basis. Each channel must be seen to add value.'

English remains the common language for business amongst Asian executives, with 83 per cent employing it regularly; this is followed by Chinese, which is used by 40 per cent of the audience.

High-level Asian executives are also frequent international travellers especially for business but also for personal reasons, with nearly half, 47 per cent, having taken six or more trips in the past year. Interestingly, despite the seniority of the audience, not all are prepared to pay out for business or first class - with just over half not using business / first as their class of choice.

Asia's work ethic is very much evident from the survey, with high tech helping execs to spend more time than ever working. 72% say they prefer to be the leader of a group, and only 68% say they make sure work doesn't stop them spending time with their friends and family.

The results of the first ever BRS survey in North America will be released by Ipsos Media in May. Other sister surveys are the EBRS, CEBRS, JBRS, USBRS, AUSBRS and Middle East BES covering Europe, Central Europe, Japan, North America, Australia and the Middle East respectively.

All the surveys use a common methodology. For the ABRS, qualifying establishments are sampled from business directories and individuals occupying eligible job functions at selected establishments are identified by telephone screening. Readership and business marketing behaviour is measured via a self-completion questionnaire administered by mail. For this wave, fieldwork was conducted September 2005 - January 2006 among 5,507 executives.

Countries covered are: Hong Kong - full coverage; Singapore - full coverage; Indonesia - Jakarta, Surabaya; Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor Bahru; Philippines - Metro-Manila; South Korea - Seoul, Pusan; Taiwan - Taipei, Kaohsiung; Thailand - Bangkok.

The Ipsos group is online at www.ipsos.com