Malaysia Adex Rises

ADDITIONAL pay-television channels monitored by Nielsen Malaysia over the past 12 months helped to boost the total advertising expenditure (adex) in the first four months of 2013.

According to Nielsen, year-to-date April adex rose 17.9% to RM3.69bil from RM3.13bil in the same period a year ago. Pay-TV adex alone recorded a 63.2% jump year-on-year.

Excluding pay-TV, however, Jan-April adex only grew 4.2% to RM2.51bil.

“The growth is due to more channels included in the Nielsen monitoring system and not so much to more spending. Last year there were only 12 channels monitored, compared with year-to-date April 2013, where it has grown to 27 channels,” says Omnicom Media Group Malaysia managing director Andreas Vogiatzakis.

“If we compare actual apple to apple and look at the increase of the channels which were monitored in both periods, pay-TV adex grew only 1.7% (April 2012 versus April 2013).

“Also, as April was still election campaign month, this could be one of the factors for the increase, with the last push before voting day,” he adds.

Prashant Kumar, IPG Mediabrands president for Asia World Markets and chief executive officer for Malaysia, says there is no doubt that pay-TV has been an “aggressive beneficiary of growth for some time.”

“However, a lot of growth in the first quarter is due to additional channels being monitored. Having said that, as Astro penetration increases and its local content gains in quality and relevance, the TV war will get hotter.”

During the four-month period under review, the product/service categories with the highest ad spend were local government institutions, mobile line services, fast-food outlets, women's facial care, and children's dairy products.

Total adex in April, inclusive of pay-TV, rose 15.8% to RM988.65mil. Excluding pay-TV, April adex grew just 0.9% to RM657.63mil.