THE GOOD AND BAD OF BARTER DEALS

A single sentence in one story in The Bangkok Post probably sent shivers down the spines of many publishers.
In the piece which highlighted forthcoming revisions in advertising strategy and spending at Thai Airways, the writer stated: "Thai Airways will purchase advertising media directly from agencies and will use more bartering in its media buying."
Bartering is common in Thailand, but it's only useful when the publisher can actually make use of the services bartered. It may sound wonderful to have, for example, a 30,000 baht barter arrangement with Thai Airways where a publisher can travel on the airline in return for advertising within his or her magazine. But if the publisher would not normally use air travel as part of company business then the deal is practically worthless.
I was recently told of one Thai language golf magazine which survives purely on barter advertising agreements. It has established a large and active membership and subscription base, to which its barter deals for golf packages, etc, are sold for cold, hard cash. So while they get no physical income from advertising they're able to translate their barter deals into lucrative income.
Back to Thai Airways, which is an influential and demanding client. I cannot imaging the news they're considering paying less cash for their advertising will come as welcome news to the vast majority of their advertising partners.