MUMBAI: India will emerge as the fifth-fastest growing advertising economy in the world by 2013, as developed markets are still recovering from the tremors of a deep recession.

India’s contribution will be $2.5 billion to the global ad spend growth, behind US, China, Russia and Brazil, according to a recent forecast by ZenithOptimedia, a firm that tracks global advertising spending.

A significant trend is that the high-growth areas are from the developing markets. While China’s contribution to the ad spend growth story will stand at $10.8 billion by 2013, Russia will settle at $6.9 billion and Brazil at $3.3 billion.

“Overall, we predict developing markets will contribute 62 per cent of new ad dollars over the next three years,” the report said.

US will, however, continue to lead due to its sheer size, contributing the most new ad dollars to the global market over the next three years despite its slow growth. It will make up $14.2 billion of the ad spend growth story by 2013.

The total global ad spend in 2013 will be $525.59 billion, up from $451.94 billion in 2010, according to the ZenithOptimedia forecast.

India’s ad spend growth will be fuelled by television. High competition and aggressive approach amongst DTH providers will lead to more customer acquisitions, which will eventually spawn viewership. Reality shows and sports content will also lead to a spike in television viewership.

“The growth in TV will be more than in print,” said ZenithOptimedia India CEO Satyajit Sen. He said that access to global technology and software will reduce the costs involved and consequently, the content quality will improve, which will, in turn, result in increased time spent on television.

In a separate reaction, Leo Burnett chairman and CEO Arvind Sharma said India is a star among the emerging markets. “Emerging markets is where all the attention is. The way media is consumed is changing,” he said.