2019 has been a challenging year for businesses across Malaysia. This has been extremely evident in light of the many issues that affected the economy and outlook of the year. In the advertising arena, it was a mixed year when it comes to expenditure.
Momentum from previous year
The industry was looking to continue the momentum in terms of advertising expenditure (ADEX) from the year before. This is because 2018 reached a crazy level in 2018 having reached RM5.8 billion. This was fuelled by frenzy spending mostly by the public sector. 2018 was the year of the General Elections which saw increased advertising expenditure by political parties and government agencies.
Slight increase in 2019
It has been a rising trend in the last few years with increases in OOH (Out-of-Home) advertising and that has not changed in 2019. In fact, it continued to grow. In Malaysia, OOH ADEX constituted RM1.4 billion rising from RM1.3 billion a year before. It must be noted that digital OOH itself contributed close to RM350,000 in 2019 alone. This is actually about 42% increase as compared to the year before.
A rise in Digital OOH Media
When it comes to media, 2019 saw a sharp increase. In the Klang Valley, there has been a 6% increase with about 800 digital panels. The number of sites meanwhile stood at 152 in 2018 and they added another 25 by the end of 2019.
Between 2018 and 2019 there was an increase of more than 230% in terms of adex by firms in the education industry with the biggest spenders coming from BAC College and Taylor’s University, among others.
For 2019, the biggest brands that spent on advertising include Uniqlo, Celcom, Foodpanda, RHB Bank, Resorts World Genting and TM. Other highlights of 2019 include:
- Static OOH contributed 8% of the total Adex
- 64% of advertising panels in the entire country were billboards, making them the largest group in terms of format
- The biggest advertisers were from the properties sector although it fell about 5%
- The biggest Adex growth in terms of industry came from non-alcoholic beverages which are coffee and health food drinks
- Fast-food chains like McDonald’s and KFC contributed an increase of about 3% in their Adex
- Y-O-Y OOH Adex saw an increase in most brands. Huawei spent 33% more while Coway increased its Adex by about 60%.
Traditional Media still preferred
Despite the growth in digital and OOH advertising, advertisers are still preferring to use traditional media. In fact, among the strongest performers in 2019 were cinemas. This saw an increase of close to RM9 million although FTA (free-to-air) media saw a minor decrease.
In March to May 2018, Adex across the country increased by about 5% where it breached RM1.6 billion which was widely contributed by the General Election that was held around that time.
Some RM50 million came from the political parties and the government’s Election Commission (EC). Within this amount, more than 50% were on printed media newspapers while about 42% were on FTA media. Without GE in 2019, overall Adex did not perform as well as it did the year before.
