Tao Tian, vice-president at CTR, pointed out two subsequent trends including the merging of the strongest media players in the industry and television content switching from long-running drama shows to talk shows, variety shows and product placement.
In 2009, provincial satellite channels witnessed growth while others experienced a decrease in market share.
“TV is not ‘the’ medium in the future,” said Tian. He predicts that spending on television will become static while other media will grow rapidly in comparison.
In 2009, adspend on both OOH ($3.4 billion) and newspaper ($9.7 billion) recorded a 9 per cent growth, trailing behind TV ($58 billion). The increase in OOH is due to the rise in ad rates and resources following the Government's lift of restrictions after the Beijing Olympics. However, Shanghai is not included in this growth because of the upcoming Shanghai World Expo.
New media such as television on buses and LCD both showed a strong increase of 41 per cent and 17 per cent respectively. Internet adspend decreased by 33 per cent.
The toiletries, business and foodstuff sectors were the highest spenders in 2009. The beverage sector on the other hand showed the biggest growth (52 per cent) compared to other cateogries. Tian explained this is due to companies launching new drink products in 2009. Computer/ office automation products and real estate/ construction spent the least during the recession.
L’Oreal was the biggest spender in 2009 followed by Olay, KFC and Wahaha. Among the top five spenders, Wahaha showed the biggest increase (104 per cent), while Olay pulled back its spending by 5 per cent.
Tian said that apart from the recession and incidents such as the milk scandals in China, consumers are regaining confidence thanks to heavy PR efforts.