Hong Kong adspend sees lower YOY third-quarter increase: admanGo

Thanks to the promotional activities before the Golden Week of National Day, the total advertising expenditure for the third quarter amounted to HK$10.39 billion. Adspend for September alone was HK$3.49 billion, recording a month-on-month growth of 2 per cent, according to admanGo report.

Adspend for the third quarter surpassed that of the first and second quarter but suffered from a relatively lower year-on-year (YOY) increase. However, figures show that most advertisers remained cautious when investing in advertising.

Here are some of the interesting findings for the report:

P&G is shifting to digital: P&G's adspend registered a YOY decline for every single month during the third quarter, recording the most severe drop in July (15 per cent), while August and September saw decrease of 13 and 6 per cent, respectively. 

P&G still focused its marketing efforts on television (reaching a share of 75 per cent for the third quarter), but shrank the ad budget on the medium by 20 per cent, as it shifted spending to other media. The company's spend on interactive advertising increased from 4 per cent last year to 6 per cent, exceeding the share for newspaper and outdoor. 

Property agencies are becoming more aggressive: During the third quarter, Midland Realty and Centaline Group spent the most in advertising. As compared with the same period last year, both of their ad budgets jumped by 33 per cent, suggesting an intense competition between the two firms. Moreover, the residential property with the highest promotional fee in the city went to The Beaumount which was jointly developed by Cheung Kong and Chiap Hua Properties.

The mobile medium is growing rapidly in importance: Mobile advertising doubled its share from 0.15 per cent during the first quarter to 0.3 per cent. Spending on mobile advertisements in September alone went beyond the gross ad dollars invested in the media for the whole of the first quarter.

Meanwhile Samsung climbed from the third place to the second, Samsung increased its adspend by one third as compared with the previous quarter. Aside from the Galaxy S III which was being advertised most frequently recently, the brand also focused its marketing efforts in the Galaxy Note tablet in the second quarter and Galaxy Note 10.1 during the third quarter.

Tea drinks are driving adspend in the beverage industry: Although the beverage industry continued to be boosted by milk powder campaigns, ad budgets promoting tea drinks also played a key role in pushing up adspend. The relevant ad dollars accounted for the second biggest share and jumped by 64 per cent as compared with last year.

Two giants in the sector, Nestle and Vitasoy International, took up over half of the industry’s adspend and increased their spending by 78 per cent and 187 per cent year-on-year.

Swatch Group and Estee Lauder are still big spenders: A number of brands under Swatch Group saw a YOY growth in adspend. Omega and Tissot spent the most, with the latter doubling its spending year-on-year. The group spent half of its advertising dollars in TV commercials.

The sub-category of cleansers and toners contributed most significantly to the cosmetic and skincare industry’s YOY growth, doubling its adspend.

Broken down by brands, the largest amount came from Estee Lauder, while the highest promotion budget for a single product went to the beauty puff of Leed.