Adspend rises in Hong Kong

HONG KONG: Adspend levels enjoyed double-digit growth in Hong Kong during the third quarter of this year, boosted by beauty, pharma and beverage brands.

According to figures from admanGo, the media monitoring service, advertising expenditure reached HK$9.3bn ($1.2m) in Q3 2011, a 16% increase on an annual basis.

Television took a 34.4% share of budgets, ahead of newspapers on 29.9%, magazines on 13.9%, outdoor on 13%, interactive channels on 4.8% and radio on 4.1%.

By category, companies from the financial services sector invested $HK946m in Q3, a 13% improvement, with toiletries and household goods logging a combined $HK718bn, a 12% leap.

Cosmetics and skincare occupied third position as marketers raised the funding they allocated to advertising by 23% to $HK687m.

Pharmaceutical and healthcare manufacturers delivered growth of 14% to $HK650m, while retailers were up 23% to $HK495m and beverage brands splashed out an additional 29% on $HK452m.

At the brand level, SK-II, Procter & Gamble's cosmetics range, led the charts on $HK85.3m, having experienced a 71% surge in adspend when compared with the third quarter of 2010.

McDonald's, the fast food group, posted $HK708.m, a 38% increase, while HSBC, the retail bank, trimmed its expenses by 1%, to a total of $HK69.9m. Citibank, in the same segment, thus closed the gap after delivering a 53% improvement to $HK69m.

Friso, which makes baby food and dairy products, did not even feature the top 50 in Q3 2010, but claimed fifth position in Q3 2011 thanks to a 204% expansion in its spending, reaching $HK64.4m overall.

Abbott Laboratories, the pharma firm, also saw a 226% lift to $HK63.7m, having only been Hong Kong's 62nd largest advertising this time last year.

Canon, the imaging group, Lancome, the beauty giant, and Samsung, the electronics manufacturer, followed in the rankings, each on roughly $HK61m. 

Data sourced from Asia Media Journal; additional content by Warc staff, 28 October 2011