Marketing shift hits industry

The event-organising industry will see flat growth this year, as many products and brands have shifted to promotional campaigns.

The move to focusing on promotional campaigns is because they can directly boost sales and promote brands among consumers. These activities can often be seen at hypermarkets and concert venues especially with beverage brands which are major sponsors.

Kreingkrai Kanjanapokin, co-chief executive of the event organiser Index Creative Village Plc, said the decline in consumer purchasing power is affecting event organisers. Producers have revised their strategies, and event organisers have to follow suit.

‘‘The overall industry, which is valued at 15 billion baht, is adjusting itself and might not grow this year,’’ he said.

Last year, the event-organising industry expanded sharply at 20% with two big events — the BoI Fair; and Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea, which featured a Thailand Pavilion.

To diversify business risk, Index envisions it business expanding internation- ally to be a hub of creativity. It expects to generate half its revenue internationally in five years from 10% now.

Index has operations in Myanmar and Vietnam through joint ventures with local companies and is seeking opportunities in other Asean countries.

But it expects a revenue drop of 22.5% to 2 billion baht this year from 2.58 billion baht last year.

Sermkhun Kunawong, the chief executive of CMO Plc, the MAI-listed event organiser, said local events will change their format to focus mainly on sales rather than exhibitions or product launches.

The automobile and telecommunications sectors still devote budgets to organise on-ground activities, which can directly generate sales.

Mr Sermkhun expressed his view that industry growth will stay flat this year.

Rathakorn Surbsuk, trading partner at GroupM, said multinational brands have already planned their advertising budgets for the rest of the year.

Mr Rathakorn estimates advertising expenditures will stay flat or grow by only 1%.