PRWeek Global Thinktank | Asia-Pacific

VitalStatistics

Population: 67,090,000.
Monetary unit: baht
Capital city: Bangkok
Major languages: Thai
Major religions: Buddhist c. 83%; Muslim (nearly all Sunni) c. 9%; traditional beliefs c. 2.5%; nonreligious c. 2%; other (significantly Christian) c. 3.5%.
Ethnic composition: Tai peoples 81.4%, of which Thai (Siamese) 34.9%, Lao 26.5%; Han Chinese 10.6%; Malay 3.7%; Khmer 1.9%; other 2.4%.
Age breakdown: under 15, 21.2%; 15–29, 23.9%; 30–44, 24.5%; 45–59, 18.2%; 60–74, 9.2%; 75–89, 2.9%; 90 and over, 0.1%.
Life expectancy: male 70.5 years; female 75.3 years.
Education: Percentage of employed population having: no formal schooling 4.9%; incomplete primary education 32.4%; complete primary 21.2%; lower secondary 29.6%; upper secondary/higher 11.4%; other/unknown 0.5%.
Urban/Rural split: urban 33.6%; rural 66.4%
Income per household (USD): -
Broadband internet users (%): -

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica

Introduction

“After many years of political uncertainty, and then a devastating flood in 2011, in 2012 Thailand's economy is finally showing signs of bouncing back,” says Vatcharaphong Siripark, senior vice president of Total Access Communication (DTAC), the second largest mobile telecommunications company in Thailand.

He believes this is fuelling a boom in the PR industry. However, Pongthip Thesaphu, communications director at the Unilever Thai Group of Companies, believes the industry has been on a growth curve for much longer. “There has been a steady growth in the Thai PR industry over the last five years,” she says. “As companies cut back their advertising budgets they turned instead to PR which offers a better value route to maintaining brand presence.”

Both agree that amongst Thailand's larger companies PR is a well established discipline that is approached strategically, and which increasingly embraces social media. What is more, many Thai companies have become adept at exploiting regional media, gaining coverage in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and even Australia.

That is though only the larger companies. Most observers agree that Thailand's smaller companies remain relatively naïve about the potential of PR. Indeed many see it as little more than sending press releases to publications that are running their ads.

Media

Thailand's media landscape is vast with 18 daily and biweekly national newspapers, six nationwide free-to-air TV channels, 125 digital satellite and IPTV channels, more than 400 magazines, 520 commercial radio stations and over 7000 community radio stations.

As Thesaphu at Unilever puts it: “Thai print media remain a publicist's dream. Our country has a very media dense environment with a lot of reader and viewer fragmentation taking place, especially over the last five years. For example in just the past three years more than 100 Thai-language satellite

TV channels have launched. Despite the fact that 65% of total ad spend in Thailand is concentrated on TV, the PR industry remains very focused on print media.”

Thai Rath is the most read title. It has a circulation over 1 million and claims a readership of 10 million. Other important publications include: Daily News, Matichon, Krungthep Turakit, Bangkok Post, The Nation and ASTV Manager.

Then there are all the regional publications. Kjetil Horgen Øiseth, director of Bluepoint Condos, an

environmentally conscientious condominium development in Phuket, says: “Local newspapers can be just as, if not more effective, than national ones. So they’re not to be dismissed. For example, incredibly, in Phuket we have three English language newspapers.”

Social media is developing fast. Thailand has a population of 69 million , 17 million of whom are internet users and 14 million are on Facebook . Much of it is being driven by mobile phones. Nearly 70 million are registered in the country .

Major Brands

The global FMCG giants such as Coca-Cola, P&G, Nestle and Unilever are all present in Thailand, and are all gaining significant editorial coverage. In finance Visa is prominent, in automotive it is Toyota and Honda, and in technology Blackberry and Lenovo have high profiles. Alcohol brands face severe restrictions on advertising, so players like

Smirnoff are active on social media.

There are several Thai companies that invest heavily in PR, notably telecommunications companies such as True Move, AIS, and DTAC, but also component manufacturer SCG and national carrier Thai Airways.