Mumbai: Dentsu global ad spend forecasts indicated that advertising spending would increase globally by 8.7 per cent in 2022. Ad spending in Asia Pacific is anticipated to reach $250 billion.

The advertising spending growth rate is predicted to be 16 per cent this year and is expected to increase 15.2 per cent in 2023 and 15.7 per cent in 2024.

The reforecast of media investment is released in the context of escalating media price inflation, geopolitical tension, upcoming key elections, and one of the most anticipated global sports events of the year, the FIFA World Cup. Due to continued uncertainty, the current and historical comparison data has also been adjusted to remove Russian investment from the forecast, to better reflect the rest of the international ad spend trends and predictions.

According to the forecast, spending on advertising in China is expected to rise by 4.0 per cent in 2023 and 5.4 per cent the following year.

Speaking in this context, Dentsu international CEO media APAC Prerna Mehrotra said, “The latest Dentsu Ad Spend July 2022 points to a continued recovery despite another year of economic uncertainty, with APAC 2022 ad spend of $250 billion, based on a growth forecast at 5.1 per cent. However, continued lockdowns in key markets, geo-political tension and ongoing supply logistics issues could add pressure on businesses with a cascading impact on marketing spends.”

Looking ahead, Dentsu expects the 2023 global advertising market to increase by 5.4 per cent to reach $778.6 billion followed by a further 5.1 per cent increase in 2024.

Mehrotra added, “This year, India (+16.0 per cent), Malaysia (+11.0 per cent) and Hong Kong (+10.1 per cent) have all achieved double-digit growth. Digital continues to drive growth accounting for 60.7 per cent of all spending in the Asia Pacific with social, video and search predicted to lead to digital growth. Advertisers increase focus and resources into e-commerce, display, and search budgets to respond to the new consumption habits. Marketers need to better understand their audiences and meet their needs with relevant messaging as online behaviour surges in Asia. Use of first-party data to identify the most profitable customers, combined with third-party data to target the prospects in the most efficient channels will help drive efficiency and manage costs.”

Dentsu International CEO- media and global clients Peter Huijboom said, “Even with everything which has happened in recent months, not least the protracted war in Ukraine and its international repercussions, the advertising recovery remains strong on a global scale. And, despite factors such as inflation putting pressure on household budgets, combined with 2021 being a tough comparative year, we have only marginally revised our 2022 global growth forecast by just 0.4 percentage points.

“Despite global economic uncertainty, brands are continuing to prioritise their spend in channels which will give them both the digital flexibility and return they seek. It is through our clear and robust insight and understanding of the market we can work with clients to navigate what’s next and partner with them on their future investment," he added.

Overall ad spends growth in Asia Pacific is boosted by key sporting events such as Indian Premier League, FIFA World Cup, Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, and country elections in Australia and India. Digital continues to be the powerhouse driving APAC ad spend, as the fastest growing medium at 11.5 per cent to reach $151.7 billion, a 60.7 per cent share of total ad spend. Fuelling this is the double-digit growth of programmatic (32.3 per cent), paid social (27.4 per cent), and digital display (13.3 per cent) in 2022. In Southeast Asia (SEA), TV spend is still significant, with the largest share (57.2 per cent) of total SEA spend (Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam), and a growth rate of 4.6 per cent.

Globally, out-of-home (OOH) and cinema will both see encouraging double-digit growth in 2022 (respectively 11.5 per cent and 19.6 per cent). Radio is also forecast to grow, much faster than initially considered with a new reforecast of 5.0 per cent for the year, up from 2.0 per cent in the January predictions – which is mainly due to faster return to office working. As with previous predictions, ad spend in newspapers and magazines will continue to decline.

In 2022, America will be the top ad spend region at $329.6 billion and the most dynamic with spending increasing by 13.1 per cent. India at 16 per cent growth will stay ahead of the US at 12.8 per cent and Brazil at 9 per cent as the fastest growing market.

Globally, industry-wise, the greatest growth is forecast for the technology sector (+11.3 per cent), which has benefited from people’s greater reliance on digital devices. Retail is one of the key sectors of spend growth at a rate of 11 per cent in 2022. The sector is driven by several factors including the significant growth of e-commerce, the entry of new players, and the introduction of emerging retail platforms. In Asia Pacific, technology, automotive and cosmetics and personal care are among the fastest growing sectors.

This dentsu Global Ad Spend Forecast not only looks at the data from 58 markets, but also examines some of the key factors impacting ad spend shift, such as inflation increases, sustainability regulation, acceleration of gaming as an ad medium, doubling down on addressable media and also the importance of buying attention as core metric