From 17 April 2007, AC Nielsen will be including online adspend, on top of their usual basket (TV, Newspapers, Periodicals, Radio, Cinema, Bus/Taxi and Posters).

This is the first time in this region that internet adspend is included within Nielsen adspend reports. 4 online publishers - Microsoft, Yahoo, Hardware Zone and Forbes are contributing to the figures. ACN hopes to get the participation of more online publishers.

71% of households in Singapore have home Internet access* and and close to 4 in 10** say they go online daily. As evidenced, the internet market is no longer a dot.com bubble but a thriving phenomenon. The inclusion of online adspend indicates that online advertising is now recognised as a prominent advertising vehicle.

* IDA 2006 Annual Survey on Infocomm Usage in Households and by Individuals
** Nielsen Media Index 2006 findings

L’Officiel (pronounced “lo-fi-cial”) will debut the last quarter of 2007. The publisher is CR Media, the same people who brought in 'August' for men. L’Officiel has a strong Parisian parentage since 1921. The magazine's first Asian debut was in India and Singapore is the first South East Asian country to localize L’Officiel.

The Singapore editorial team has not been revealed yet but the look and feel of the magazine is likened to a a ‘fashion coffee-table book’. The magazine promises visually exquisite photography with compelling influences from the global fashion movement. Their target audience is 2nd generation fashion forward 'tai-tais' / socialites.

While magazine readership has not significantly increased over the last 2 years*, publishers continue to introduce new titles into the market. Currently, there are already 17 female titles in the market.
Advertisers will definitely face a greater challenge in having to invest the same budget across more titles that are available in the market.

*Magazines readership (based on Adults 15+, read any monthlies in the past month): Yr 2006 - 31%; Yr 2005 - 29%; Yr 2004 - 30%

Besides offering spot buy or sponsorship packages, Starhub CableTV has just rolled out an event package. Advertisers will be able to tap on StarHub CableTV’s event crew for their launches, openings, seminars, roadshows etc with this buy. For a minimum spend of $30,000, Starhub CableTV is offering a production package and also on-air entitlements.

Moving forward, there may be greater possibilities for StarHub CableTV to provide more advertising opportunities such as interstitials and customized trailers. By providing this value-add, it allows small to medium size advertisers to consider the option of using CableTV as a media channel for their advertising campaigns.