MUMBAI: Korea’s total advertising spend for 2011 has jumped 10.9 per cent to $8.46 billion, according to an estimate by Cheil Worldwide.

This is the second consecutive year when the country’s ad expenditure has increased, after it dipped 6.9 per cent in calendar year 2009 over the prior year due to the global economic crisis .

Data from the years 2010 and 2011 signal that the market is back on track. The jump in calendar year 2011 is due to improved consumer sentiment combined with aggressive marketing campaigns by companies, Cheil Worldwide‘s annual report on annual advertising spends in Korea stated.

Segregating the spends according to the medium, one sees that Internet jumped by 20 per cent while TV and print media showed 11 per cent and 3.3 per cent increase respectively.

Mobile advertising which is a relatively new category recorded a growth of 11,900 per cent from $0 .44 million in 2010 to $53.1 million in 2011. The major growth driver for this category is the use of smart phones which skyrocketed.

Despite the Euro crisis and downturn in developed countries, 2012’s growth in the ad spend is expected to be between 5 per cent and 6.3 per cent higher than the national economic growth rate. This is keeping in view some positive signs like general programming TV (four new channels introduced by major newspapers) which will continue to increase ad sales. Print media is becoming increasingly digitalised and industries are reliant on individual digital media such as smart phones.

The report is an estimate of advertising spending in Korea during the calendar year, representing the advertising media fees and production costs for the traditional media (newspapers, magazines, radio and television), along with those for the satellite media, Internet, and promotional media categories.