Singapore’s advertisers dwell on print at the expense of digital
In one of the smartest, most connected markets in the world, print spending appears to be going steady. A study of nearly 700 senior executives responsible for allocating media spend, conducted by Econsultancy in association with Datalicious, demonstrates a heavy reliance on print advertising by Singaporean marketers.
People in Singapore spend just 10 per cent of their media time reading printed content, yet the medium attracts 42 percent of all advertising expenditure. This is the highest discrepancy between media time and advertising spend per channel across the five markets studied in the new report and is contrary to the print decline being experienced in Western nations.
Television attracts a further 26 per cent of the media spend on the island state and 38 percent of marketers plan to increase their commitment to the medium this year.
The slow road to digital
Singapore’s commitment to traditional media means there’s conversely less expenditure on online. Just 13 per cent of media budgets are digital, compared to 27 percent in the US, 38 percent in the UK and 43 percent in Australia and New Zealand. Legacy systems and siloed department structures are the two most common reasons for not spending more on digital channels in Singapore.
Christian Bartens, CEO and Founder of Datalicious, says the slow conversion to digital will be at the expense of marketing efficiency. He said, “Singaporeans are spending 38 percent of their media time online, but the spend commitment falls a long way short of this. It’s a curious finding in a nation which is a rapid adopter of technology to see a more traditional approach to media spend. I expect with greater adoption of sophisticated attribution methodologies marketers will be able to see where success is coming from and adopt a more balanced approach to media planning.”
There is a strong interest in the potential of mobile marketing. Around 62 percent of planners expect to increase their spending commitment to the channel this year, but even so there remains some scepticism about the likely degree of success. As one respondent indicated, “There comes a point when the customer is looking at Facebook on a tiny screen without the sound up and you have to ask – are they getting an experience on mobile or not?”
Bartens says it’s a valid viewpoint, but greater use of tracking and analysis will enable marketers to see which channels are providing the most effective outcomes.
Ahead of the measurement curve
The positive news is that Singaporean marketers outstrip many other nations when it comes to tracking and analysis. 61 per cent of Singapore marketers use attribution to measure marketing effectiveness, compared to just 39 per cent in Australia and New Zealand and 34 per cent in the US. 20 per cent of digital media spend in Singapore is based on RoI reports from attribution modelling, on par with the United States and only slightly behind the UK (24 per cent).
The findings suggest that Singapore’s softly approach to digital is based on sound reasoning rather than a cautious attitude. Whilst most marketers expect to increase their online spend, it will be based on analysis and a firm eye on the RoI.
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