SPENDING on advertisement of hair and telecommunication products on television dropped in the first quarter of this year, the Nielsen Co.’s media spending highlights report revealed.

Still, ad spending on shampoo, rinse, treatment and hairdressing products led the top 10 categories, with spending hitting nearly P3.5 billion in January to March this year.

Communication and telecommunication products followed as the second highest among the top 10 categories with P2.749 billion spent during the quarter, dropping only a percent from the P2.781 billion Nielsen recorded in the same period last year.

Hair products dropped 11 percent from the P3.932 billion spent on advertising in January to March 2008.

The biggest drop at 12 percent, however, came from dentifrices, mouthwash and toothbrush products, from P1.418 billion in ad spending during the first quarter of last year.

The drop in ad spending for hair products could have come from the decrease in the spending of Colgate-Palmolive Philippines Inc. and Unilever Philippines Inc. that posted a -22 percent and -1 percent, respectively.

Colgate-Palmolive’s spending for the first quarter dropped to P1.484 billion from P1.913 billion in the same period last year.

Top television advertiser Unilever, on the other hand, spent P0.52-billion less during the quarter compared with the P4.046 billion it spent in the same period last year.

British businesses are keen to increase trade with the Philippines in the next few years, particularly in financial and outsourcing services.

At the sidelines of the launch of the Philippine Learning Center for Trade and Investment Policy (PLACE), UK Ambassador to the Philippines Peter Beckingham said the UK also intends to import goods from the country, such as clothing, baked food products, coconut oil and coconut products.

Beckingham said the UK is a big exporter here of transport equipment, especially for the car sector, some retail goods and pharmaceutical products.

Bilateral trade between the two countries is worth around $2 billion annually, with the balance in the Philippines’ favor.

Apart from increasing trade with the country, Beckingham said British firms also plan to invest in the business-process outsourcing, energy and mining sectors. He said these involve new investments and expansion plans.

THE entry of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) as a shareholder of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) was seen as a way to speed up the latter’s prepaid metering offer to its customers.

“There are a lot of areas of possible synergy, and we have been working on some on our own,” Jose de Jesus, Meralco president and chief operating officer, said.

However, he admitted Meralco does not see the prepaid-meter offering to come into fruition this year. He said the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) still has to come out with rules on the matter.

But de Jesus quickly expressed optimism to have prepaid metering next year.

De Jesus said the power firm’s work on prepaid metering is quite advanced, and it is prepared to pilot the prepaid metering service, particularly with those with elevated meter units.

De Jesus noted it is looking at coming up with means that will allow prepaid meter users to easily reload their accounts using their mobile phones.