Destination: Thailand need a for speed


The fast-expanding Thai entertainment and media market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.3 per cent over the next five years – the fourth fastest growth in South-east Asia. But does the resilient magazine sector there have the speed and the depth of knowledge to play a meaningful role in this development, asks Julie Sherborn?


politics with Bill Murray’s 24-hour film on time loop. Other commentaries contended the turmoil was a state of normalcy on the Apennine Peninsula that dates back beyond the time of the Medicis!


G


I recalled the piece, influenced by a Sicilian colleague, sitting in one of those let’s-get-this- sorted business meetings in Bangkok, just a few hundred metres from where thousands of Thais, clad in yellow and black, were gathering to protest an amnesty bill proposed by the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra. It was the latest in a litany of domestic political flashpoints and a scenario that captured once again the passions of a determined people bent on driving change. The scenes and commentary


were played out across all communication platforms, a reminder of the dynamism, resilience and creativity of a singular, comparatively free domestic media (at least historically) in a region where public opinion is more often reported coloured by other commercial and didactic mores. That freedom and creativity struck me from the moment I became involved


32 | Magazine World | issue 81_2014


roundhog Day! The Financial Times jumped on Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s October analogy, aligning his day in a life of domestic


Discover more about


Thailand’s magazine media industry at FIPP’s Worldwide Media Marketplace on 14-15 May 2014. www.wmm.net claire@fipp.com


This year’s WMM will host the first FIPP


Digital Newsstand Forum. www.fippdnf.com claire@fipp.com


in publishing in Thailand in 1997. Working then for Kerry Packer’s Australian Consolidated Press, we entered into a joint venture with The Bangkok Post, helmed at that time by Nigel Oakins, and Hachette Filipacchi Presse, with Didier Guerin as its Asia-Pacific president, to produce CLEO. The young women’s title had already made serious inroads into Singapore’s print market, sitting within the top three most read women’s titles after just three years, while in Malaysia, it had quickly become the number one English language, young women’s magazine. But unlike its South-east Asia neighbours, where circulation seemed overly hooked on the right giveaway or covermount, Thailand was different. The right cover, tone and content really made a difference. Audiences in this never-colonialised country had a distinct mind of their own, while media consumption patterns in a relatively nascent print market, at least in international terms, were more closely aligned to those of the developed arenas of Europe and the US. This individuality has


shown itself brilliantly in the ad world. Thai ad agencies were scooping international awards at Cannes and in New


York well ahead of other Asian capitals, driven by an innate sense of the creative idea centred on emotional


attachment that was sensitive to a young population, increasing spending power and an urban oriented culture. There was a hallmark of fun too!


That vitality took a little longer to migrate to magazines. Journalists used to writing within the context of Thailand’s generally over-structured prose had to develop a more relaxed, conversational style of communication. Art directors took time to understand the key navigation points of strong print design – the lightness of the Thai script makes developing strong, visual hierarchies challenging, particularly in mass consumer titles.


Need for change As a result, the journey to find the balance between the creation of the kind of targeted content required to drive reader loyalty, and the brand support, (too often counted in number of pages rather than quality of content) necessary in ad-driven business models has been a challenging one. Some publishers have been quicker than others to grasp the need for change. As you would expect, titles with strong western branding have made their mark, with CLEO leading the way. But there’s been some real buzz also around Japanese brands like ViVi, which understands the influence across Asia of harajuku fashion and manga culture. For certain, Thailand will continue to be an interesting destination for both international brands and domestic titles. And why not? PwC forecasts that entertainment and media


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