Will digital marketing be what Thailand needs to reboot its post-pandemic economy?
According to the Bangkok Post, Thailand has plans to grow its digital advertising spend by 9% in 2022 to support its post-pandemic recovery. With the Thai government expecting their tourism revenue to reach 80% of what it was before the pandemic by 2023 (2.38 trillion baht), will digital marketing be one of the platforms to help accelerate a post-pandemic recovery?
There has been a trend of consumers moving their spending habits online after the introduction of work-from-home, stay-at-home policies. You yourself, may have noticed that you have started to do everything online: work, shopping and food delivery.
As a result, the trend of digital and online spending is clear as the pandemic has forced many businesses to adopt new policies to operate during the pandemic. Data from the ARTS (Annual Retail Trade Survey) in 2020 has shown that e-commerce sales in the United States alone has risen by $244.2 billion or a 43% increase in sales.
This may suggest that the pandemic although has impacted businesses such as retail, travel and transportation, there has been other industries such as e-commerce and online activities that has seen a boost in consumer and advertising spending habits.
Jeet Tan, founder of an advertising agency based in Bangkok, states:
“I read that Business Insider indicated the five components of having a recession are as follows: a decline in GDP, a decline in real income, rise in unemployment, stagnation of production and retail sales, and a decline in consumer spending.
The pandemic has stagnated production, raised unemployment and caused a decline in income for many employees & businesses, locally and worldwide – what will prevent the economy declining any further will be to get people back to work and to allow businesses to open up so they can support the economy, while suggesting safe & fair measures.
Since consumers are already staying at home and on their phones, I believe that digital marketing, and online advertising will play an integral role in this effort.”
How will digital marketing help the country be back on track? Through the encouragement of offline spending, promoting the opening up of businesses through avenues people are already utilizing, and perhaps acknowledging that COVID-19 has now become an endemic and preparing people mentally to live with it.
It’s simply not good for economies to stay stagnant as that’s how recessions occur which many financial experts around the world have suggested we are heading towards, that is if the trajectory does not change.
Digital marketing will also play a key role in getting tourists back to Bangkok. After all, pre-pandemic Thailand has been ranked the 5th in the world in terms of the number of tourists each year. Promoting Thailand as an “re-opened tourist hub” will be one of the ways to get tourists back to boost the economy. With the internet, it will be possible to reach the millions of backpackers and tourists that want to visit the country.
2020 has shown us that the world has changed, and the move towards digital will be here to stay as it is making communication and commerce much convenient. Using these avenues as a way of promoting the support of the economy, and the promotion of the steps that will lead to countries eventually opening up, will be a way to support rebooting of Thailand’s economy and the world.
