Celcom, DiGi and Maxis in adex decline

• Adex figures for Celcom, DiGi and Maxis drop for H1 2009 vs H2 2008
• Celcom figures decline 47%
• Total adspend for Malaysia only declined by 1%
  

Malaysia - Adex figures for the big mobile players Celcom, DiGi and Maxis have shrunk in the first half of 2009 compared to the same period last year while the print sector struggled with both Newspaper and Magazine ad spend declining as well, according to Nielsen.

However all three mobile companies were still ranked by Nielsen as top ten advertisers for the first half of 2009 but it was Celcom which showed the sharpest decline (47%) in adex figures from RM95,295,000 for H1 2008 compared to RM50,640,000 for H1 2009.

While rivals DiGi and Maxis saw adspend declines of 24% and 22% having spent RM43,523,000 and RM34,758,000 respectively so far this year. For the same period, TM recorded an increase in adspend by 50% to total RM34,754,000 as a result of promotional advertising in their product categories such as internet provider and phone cards, and corporate advertising.

In total, the Malaysian advertising market recorded a total spending of RM2.9 billion in the first half of 2009 which was only a decline of 1% compared to the same period last year.

"Although Malaysia's advertising market saw a slight decline in the first half of this year, second quarter spending remains on par with the same period last year," Wong Mae Suen, associate director, Media Group for The Nielsen Company said.

"Increased spending in government awareness campaigns on dengue and H1N1 influenza, social messages and national service campaigns, and continued spending on local events like the Malaysia Grand Prix and new product and service launches have helped in maintaining advertising spending in the second quarter," she said.

Among the top advertising categories in the first half of this year were Classified Ads at RM300 million followed by mobile line services (RM133 million) and local government institutions (RM129 million).