APAC adspend to grow 4% in 2019

Asia-Pacific adspend is the biggest contributor to a global increase of US$20.9 billion in 2019, according to Dentsu Aegis Network’s latest advertising spend forecast.

Based on data from 59 markets, Dentsu forecasts that global adspend growth will fall to 3.6%, from 4.3% in 2018, accounting for a slip from US$625 billion last year to US$609 billion.

APAC spending is predicted to hit 4%, said Dentsu, for a total of US$216 billion, although this is a decrease on 5.3% growth in 2018. Dentsu said APAC will contribute 39% to overall global adspend growth, leading North America (34%) and Western Europe (14%).

Within APAC, China remains the largest advertising market, with growth forecasted by Dentsu at 5.4% despite economic tensions resulting from the trade war with the US. This is, however, a revision down from the 7% growth Dentsu predicted in January. Dentsu attributes this to a higher than expected decline in TV advertising spend (down 6.8%). In keeping with the global trend of increased digital spend, China will see it account for 63.6% of adspend growth in 2019, with ecommerce making up the biggest part of this.

India is predicted to see double-digit adspend growth of 11.4% in 2019, up from 10.6% forecast in January. Dentsu said the ICC Cricket World Cup will be a large factor in driving this. Increased digital infrastructure will see digital adspend in India climb 32.7% to account for 21% of overall spend, but TV still leads the market with a 39% share.

“Asia Pacific has long been the melting pot of digital and technology developments,” said Takaki Hibino, APAC CEO of Dentsu Aegis. “Though we have been facing a tougher economic environment, our adspend forecast has shown that digital connectivity in APAC remains at its peak and consumer adoption rates have leapfrogged.”

In terms of wider global trends, Dentsu said digital continues to be the driving force in adspend growth, accounting for 41.8% of overall spend with an 11.4% increase in 2019. Within digital, mobile remains the fatest-growing platform, forecast to grow 21.4% this year. 

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GroupM also released its worldwide media forecast, which showed a similar picture, with global adspend growth slowing to 3.4%, down from 6.9% in 2018. For APAC, GroupM predicts 4.9% growth for a total spend of US$209 billion.

China was again listed behind the US as second-largest single adspend market at US$4.7 billion in 2019. GroupM predicts 5.2% growth in 2019, but then an increase to 5.6% in 2020.

For India, the forecast expects accelerated growth of 14% in 2019, and then 13%, allowing the country to surpass Canada and Australia and become the world’s eighth-largest advertising market.