Hyundai, Nissan and Toyota the most advertised car brands

Singapore - Hyundai, Nissan and Toyota are the top three most advertised automobile brands in the Singapore market in the last year, according to a 2006 Media Index study published by The Nielsen Company.

Singapore Adex figures for car brands by authorised dealers show that Hyundai is top with $4,949,545, followed by Nissan with $3,988,783, and Toyota rounds up the top three with $3,485,131 spent.

Other results from the study show that automotive and related companies spent in total, over US$3.95 billion (S$6.05 billion) on advertising in 2006, of which China took the lion's share of 47%, followed by Australia (17%) and India (15%) - Singapore spent US$55.6 million (S$85.1 million) which equated to only 1.4% of the share spent across the 12 Asia Pacific markets surveyed.

The 2006 Media Index also claims that close to one in five residents in Singapore owns a car, which ranks Singapore in seventh place in terms of percentage of cars penetration in Asia Pacific. New Zealand led this category with 82%, while Malaysia was in fifth place with 67% and Hong Kong ranked below Singapore with only 16%.

"Densely populated city states like Singapore and Hong Kong have relatively lower penetration of cars ownership, thanks to the cheap, convenient, and efficient public transport system," Rebecca Tan, executive director of Nielsen Media Research Singapore for The Nielsen Company said.

The study puts the United States as the worlds largest in terms of car penetration with nearly nine in to Americans claiming to own a car. Saudi Arabia was ranked second with 86%.