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Corporate News

Firms spending too little on outdoor ads

WITH MORE than half of Metro Manila residents spending most of their time outside their
homes, companies should allocate a larger portion of their advertising budgets to
"out-of-home" media, Nielsen Media Research said yesterday.

In a briefing, Nielsen Executive Director Jay G. Bautista said the ad budgets of companies do not go
to media people are most exposed to.

Based on Nielsen’s study, 68% of Metro Manila residents are exposed to outdoor media such as
billboards, next to TV (96%). But outdoor advertising captured only 2% of last year’s P170-billion
media advertising pie.

Of the outdoor ad budget, about a fifth was spent on Metro Manila’s commuter railways, which is
used by almost three in four of the metropolis’s estimated 5.79 million residents aged 15 and up, Mr.
Bautista said.

Corporations’ hesitance to increase spending on outdoor media is largely due to the absence of
"metrics" or measurements.

"If I am an ad man and I don’t see any metrics there [I also won’t put money there] ... But the
opportunities are there especially with metrics [for MRT and LRT] now here," he said.

The Nielsen survey showed that the MRT or Metro Rail Transit caters more to the 25 to 49 age
segment (73% of the total), while LRT or Light Rail Transit riders are skewed toward the 15 to 24
year old set (46.5%). Commuters also use the MRT or LRT an average of four times a week.

MRT users are predominantly blue collar (53%) and white collar workers (21%), while patrons of
LRT Line 1 (30%) and LRT Line 2 (42%) are predominantly students.

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As for the types of ads that caught riders attention the most, number
one on the survey’s list are clock ads (92%) followed inside train ads
(85%) and train wraps (84%).

Bing Kimpo, vice president for communications and special projects

for Trackworks, which handles outdoor advertising for MRT, said the
high recall for the clock ads was surprising.
Three out of four Metro
Manila residents use "These have not been selling well .. some are even packaged with the
commuter trains, according to billboards [to be bought], but people do seem to be paying attention to
a Nielsen survey them," he said.

Mr. Kimpo said the study should change the perception on advertising in mass transit systems.

"We’ve always thought MRT as a place to hang a sign on. But it’s really like TV and radio where
there are peak and off peak hours that give companies the opportunity to craft specific messages for
these times," he said.

The peak train riding hours are between 6:30 a.m. and 9:45 a.m., with another at spike at 5 p.m., the
study showed.

The survey also showed that 92% of train riders are more likely to go to malls than non-riders (87%),
and are more likely to dine out in fast food outlets (92% compared to 89% of non-riders).

The poll was done in February, involving 500 MRT riders and 250 each from the two LRT lines.

Also yesterday, Nielsen Media introduced its mobile panel service, which allows quick
measurements on current media trends, perception, and behavior using text messages.

Nielsen recruited 300 Mega Manila MRT riders for its pilot study from July 4 to 6. Among the
mobile panel’s findings are that 54% see corruption as the biggest concern for the Philippine’s next
president, and only 29% are strongly aware about the issues surrounding proposals to change the
Constitution. — Don Gil K. Carreon

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