September slows following strong growth

Hong Kong - Following strong consecutive growth in advertising spend for the July and August months, September slowed to a 2% year-on-year increase, reaching HK$4.4billion.

New data from Nielsen Media Research's Hong Kong Advertising Information Services, shows September growth halted, after 9% increases for the July and August months.

Radio was the star performer with a 30% increase in growth for the single month followed by other outdoor media/cinema, which saw a 20% increase.

Compare to September 2006, TV's share of total ad spend in Hong Kong dropped 2%, while the share for print and MTR remained stable at 51%.

Bus advertising, which Nielsen started to monitored in 2007 also accounted for 1% of the total advertising pie.

The Bank of China topped the ad spend for September, spending $47 million on main media activity, a 21% year-on-year increase. HSBC followed closely with $46 million.

While Halloween is not here until 31 October, the two theme parks in Hong Kong have been heavily promoting their events.

The advertising expenditure of Hong Kong Disneyland in September 2007 reached $15 million, more than a double of that of last September while Ocean Park spent more than $6 million, equivalent to a 40% year-on-year increase.

The relatively soft September performance has also slowed the growth rate of the Hong Kong advertising market for the past three quarters. Compared to the same period last year, only a 5% increase in ad spend was recorded in the first three quarters of 2007.