The advertising market in leading Central and Eastern European (CEE) markets will grow by 4.5% this year.
According to GroupM, in a report that analyses the situation in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia and Poland, this will be down from the 6% posted in 2022. It adds that this will be down to the current economic situation and uncertainty associated with marketing investment in certain countries.
Poland, the largest market in the region, will grow more slowly than others this year. Media advertising revenues will increase by 0.5% according to current estimates compared to 2022 and amount to slightly over PLN12.6 billion (€2.69 billion). Smaller markets in the region, such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Croatia, will maintain a growth rate of several percent in 2023.
In the next two years, GroupM expects only minor shifts in the division of the regional advertising pie between individual media. The share of digital advertising only in 2022 broke the 50% mark in 2022 in CEE, while globally it already stood at 73%. These statistics include the so-called digital extensions of traditional media, i.e. revenues derived by TV and radio broadcasters or press publishers from digital advertising on their streaming services, applications or websites. Digital media have the share of the ad cake in Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, while the lowest is recorded in Serbia and Croatia (below 40%).
In the report, GroupM also looked at the relationship between the size of GDP and GDP per capita and the size of advertising expenditure. Only in two markets in the region – Czech Republic and Slovakia – media advertising revenues slightly exceed 0.5% share of GDP at current prices (in Poland it was 0.4%; GDP size based on data from the European Commission).
This relationship is influenced by both the wealth of individual markets and the situation in their advertising sectors: the level of competition or concentration within media owners.
GroupM also observed a relationship between the size of GDP per capita in individual markets and the size of advertising expenditure per capita in individual countries. The level of affluence of the inhabitants clearly correlates with the investments that advertisers make to reach them.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Izabela Albrychiewicz, CEO of GroupM Poland and CEE cluster lead at GroupM, said: “In this context, the position of Poland may be puzzling. The annual Ad Per Capita in the Czech Republic is almost twice as high as in Poland, while the Czech GDP per Capita exceeds the Polish one by less than half. Considering the number and purchasing power of Polish consumers, we are certainly not a market heavily invested in advertising”.
She added: “In the coming years, we will develop faster than Western economies, in accordance with the forecasts of the European Commission, and the historically low unemployment rate in the region is conducive to thinking about CEE as a safe place for investments, including advertising. Consumers are still good customers of the retail, telecoms and FMCG sectors, but also, given the stability of employment and wage dynamics, sectors of durable goods such as electronics, furniture and automotive”.
