June ad spend reports 6.7 percent growth

Hong Kong - Total ad spend for the month of June has grown by 6.7 percent compared to last year at HK$4.3 billion, according to the 2007 June Hong Kong Advertising Information Services report from Nielsen Media Research.

The bullish stock market has had a positive spill-over effect on the advertising market where advertising for finance and investment services has doubled in June 2007, compared with the same period last year.

HSBC is the top advertiser in June, spending HK$65 million on advertising focused on promoting wealth management services using newspaper as the main advertising medium followed by terrestrial TV. Bank of China is at third place spending HK$33 million advertising on bus body and district newspapers to promote their products while Hang Seng Bank focused advertising resources on district newspapers to promote the bank's products.

The education and travel sectors also recorded a rise in ad spend in June due to seasonal factors. The announcement of the HK A-Level examination results has seen universities and colleges put more advertising resources in promoting their programmes and courses, with the Vocational Training Council topping the education category. VTC has tripled its ad spend compared to June last year, advertising on terrestrial TV this year. City University of Hong Kong snatched the third placing, recording a year-on-year 260 percent growth in ad spend for June.

Travel agents also seized to increase their business opportunities to coincide with the summer holidays with Hong Thai Travel spending HK$25 million to become the top eighth brands for the month of June. Evergloss Tour and SIG Holiday replace Wing On Travel and Morning Star Travel from last year to become this year's top three advertisers in the travel industry.