Philippines adspend up 5%

Warc, 14 August 2014

MANILA: Total advertising expenditure in the Philippines across the three media of TV, radio and print rose 5% in the first half of 2014 according to new data.

Figures from Kantar Media, reported by Marketing Interactive, show that overall spending reached PHP 175.6m in the first six months compared to PHP 167.9m in the same period a year earlier. TV accounted for the lion's share of this, at 79.7%, followed by radio (17.2%) and finally print (3.1%).

Television was also the only area showing growth as spending in that medium increased 6.4% to PHP 139.9m. Radio was broadly flat, slipping -0.8% to PHP 30.3m, while print was down significantly, by -8.4%, to PHP 5.4m.

Unilever was a prominent television advertiser: Unilever Philippines itself was the biggest TV spender, increasing its spend 16% to PHP 25.8m, while sister company Unilever RFM Ice Cream posted the highest increase in TV spending, up 291% to PHP 2.67m.

Procter & Gamble, Unilever's rival in the household/personal cleaning market, stepped up its challenge in the first half, more than doubling (+111%) its TV spend to PHP 15.4m.

Radio remains an important medium in the Philippines. "It has retained its effectiveness and potential," Gabriel Buluran, Kantar Media general manager said earlier this year. "It just has to protect what is already theirs so they won't be encroached upon by existing or emerging media."

ACS Manufacturing, a local cleaning products manufacturer, was the leading radio advertiser, doubling its spending to PHP 2.45m. Others were also investing heavily in this medium: confectionary business Columbia International Food Products had upped its expenditure 675% on the same period in 2013, while that of beer brand San Miguel had almost tripled.

The most noteworthy development in the print sector was the increased investment by Ford Motors Philippines, which amounted to a 12,270% uplift, but at PHP 90,000 this was still tiny in relation to other media.

Data sourced from Marketing Interactive; additional content by Warc staff