Global ad expenditure is set to grow by 4.2% to $559 billion this year, according to Zenith’s new Advertising Expenditure Forecasts.
Although this is lower than the 4.8% recorded last year, 2016 was a ‘quadrennial year’ and benefited from extra ad spend stimulated by the US elections, Summer Olympics in Rio and the football championships in Europe.
These events added around $6 billion to the total, and as a result the underlying growth will strengthen from 3.6% in 2016 to 5.4% this year.
Although Asia-Pacific is leading global ad spend growth, both Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe are recovering, with that in the latter increasing from 4.1% last year to 7.3% in 2017.
On the other hand, weak UK growth in dragging down the rest of Western Europe. Indeed, it is forecast to fall in the UK from 9.6% in 2016 to just 0.6% this year, bring Europe’s growth rate down from 4.6% to 2%.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting and director of global intelligence at Zenith, said: “Latin America and Central & Eastern Europe are improving, but Asia Pacific remains the main engine of global ad spend growth.
“China may be slowing, but it’s still growing at $5 billion a year, while India, Indonesia and the Philippines grow at double-digit rates.”
Vittorio Bonori, Zenith’s global brand president, added: “After a decade of cost-cutting since the financial crisis, we believe brands now need to focus on topline growth. Our survey shows that brands are looking to data and technology as the main driver of business growth, closely followed by business transformation and new competitive positioning.”
