Online advertising remains strong in Thailand but skepticism to advertising has grown over the years

YouGov’s latest media report titled ‘The 2024 Media morph’ revealed that online remains the leading channel for advertising impact among Thai consumers, consistent across all age groups.

Leveraging its audience segmentation tool, YouGov Profiles, this report explores shifts in media habits of Thailand people over the last five years and reveals their attitudes to advertising.

Two-thirds of Thai consumers say, ‘I often notice advertisements on the Internet’ (67%). While internet advertising remains a strong channel for awareness, skepticism to advertising has grown over the past five years. A third of Thai consumers (34%) agree with the statement, ‘I think advertisements are a waste of time’, up from 29% in 2019.

Among the different generations, people in Thailand aged between 25-54 are more ad accepting. Those aged 55+ are more ad adverse.

Ad accepting people are most likely to notice advertisements on the internet (85%), followed by posters/ billboards (74%) and ads at events (68%).

When it comes to their expectations from ads, a majority expect them to entertain them (75%). Ads having real people (72%) and their favourite celebrities (66%) can help form a deeper connection with them.

Data from the report also shows that the appetite for on demand is strong with close to half of Thailand people (45%) spending six hours or more watching watch video on demand per week. This number increases slightly among audiences aged between 18 and 44.

Netflix leads the field as the most used on demand and catch-up service (36%), way ahead of TrueID (12%), WeTV (5%), AIS Play and Viu (4% each). Consumption of Netflix is particularly high among young adults between 18 and 24 (at 47%) and 25 and 34 (43%).

To better understand the profiles of ad receptive people and learn about the evolving media landscape in Thailand, download the full report here.

Methodology: YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data and rolling surveys, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Profiles data for Thailand is representative of the adult online population (18 years or older), and weighted by gender, age, region and monthly household income, and reflect the latest National Statistical Office of Thailand (NSO) population estimates. For this report, data was collected in December 2023, using a minimum base size of N=450. Learn more about Profiles.