The total on advertising spent on the Chinese mainland last year surged 25 per cent over 2003, a survey shows.

Expenditures reached US$23.3 billion, including television and print media, the survey released by CTR Market Research yesterday in Beijing said.

The top five advertising categories in the mainland were cosmetics and toiletries, foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, retail and services, and real estate.

The cosmetics and toiletries sector was ranked No 1 in spending with US$4.8 billion plunked down, an increase of 34 per cent.

The No 1 brand, Oil of Olay from P&G, spent US$565.8 million on advertising, a 160 per cent increase over 2003.

Advertising can be seen as the "weather glass" of the overall development of the country's economy, said Tian Tao, deputy general manager of CTR.

"The results of the survey reflect strong economic development in the country," Tian said.

"One of the most interesting findings from the survey is that local and foreign mobile phone manufacturers reacted quite differently in terms of advertising spending," Tian said.

Most local mobile phone manufacturers had decreasing advertising expenditures while their foreign counterparts saw significant growth, Tian said.

Researchers also found that advertising on so-called functional drink categories surged while milk makers decreased after a dramatic increase in advertising spending in 2003.

The survey also includes figures from Hong Kong and Taiwan, which were conducted by admanGo in Hong Kong and Rainmaker in Taiwan.

Advertising expenditures in Hong Kong reached US$4.8 billion, an increase of roughly 15 per cent from the previous year.

Taiwan advertising expendi-tures reached US$15 billion, up roughly 27 per cent from the previous year.

In Hong Kong, the top three advertising categories were household and toiletries, banking and investment services, and cosmetics.

In Taiwan, the top three advertising categories were real estate, automobile and financial institutions.

Researchers also found that in the mainland and Taiwan, advertising markets are occupied mainly by TV media while in Hong Kong, print media enjoys the greatest advertising income and occupied 51 per cent of market share.

(China Daily February 24, 2005)