Dating Advertisement and PR
With 75.7 billion baht or $2.4 billion worth of advertisement revenue floating around in Thailand, I think it is worth discussing some experience I have had with such industry promoting my dating service. I’ll try to make it as generalised as possible so you can use it too if you want to start marketing your own product.
If you want to go big and broke, watch out when you hire a PR company. They may be good with getting newspaper to write articles on your business, organise an event, leaflet handouts etc. but they also great at sucking your income faster than you could earn it. Line out all the details of what they will be offering to every single details otherwise your investment can dry up into a heated Bangkok air. Write to me if you want to know a good and most effective PR company in Bangkok.
A lot of time you can actually do a self PR without going through an agency, but it’s time consuming especially if you don’t know who to contact. Some jounalists do take compensation (off the book) for writing a story on your product , but it will take a lot of time and effort. It is somewhat easier if you hold a press conference of the new product launch or send them photograph of your events, they will likely to publish it. For the first example, make sure that you inform the newspapers and magazine in advance prior to press conference. If some newspaper can’t make it, some jounalist will actually try to interview you afterwards.
Direct adverstisement in the magazines or newspaper are also pretty pricey. I have recently got a quote from Prestige, an upscale magazine, with a 275,000 baht for a page inside the front cover, and why should anyone choose to advertise with this magazine? The exact quote is:
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Represents only outrageously luxury brands
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High earning professional target market
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Beautifully designed advertisings
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Engaging editorial
I almost choked when I read the first reason, and started to wonder what comes first, an outrageously expensive luxury brand or a crazy price quote from a Thai magazine.
The last tip if you want to run a business in Thailand, it’s not what you can do, but it’s who you know. It’s sad but true.
