Emerging Asia leads adspend growth

Warc, 17 June 2014

SINGAPORE: Emerging Asian countries are forecast to be among the fastest growing advertising markets in the world over the next three years according to two new reports.

Latest figures from ZenithOptimedia predicted an average annual increase in advertising expenditure for 'fast-track Asia' – which includes China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam – of 11.9%. This figure put it just ahead of Latin America, on 11.6%, and far ahead of 'advanced Asia' (defined as Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea) on 4.2%.

China and Indonesia were expected to be among the top three contributors to adspend growth over the 2013-16 period, behind the US, adding $15.7bn and $6.0bn respectively. And Indonesia, Campaign Asia-Pacific noted, was set to move from being the 13th largest ad market to the tenth largest over the same time, with a projected 2016 value of $12.8bn.

Separately, Magna Global also highlighted Indonesia as being among the fastest growing ad markets in the region, alongside Vietnam. In addition to a booming economy, an election later this year is likely to give an extra boost to advertising.

Emerging Asian markets in total, which for Magna means China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, are projected to account for half of the Asia Pacific region's total spend and for 15% of the world total.

Overall, however, Magna Global downgraded its 2014 growth estimates for the region, from a figure of 8.4% in December to 7.6% now. The revision took account of continued political uncertainties in Thailand, where the advertising market is now expected to shrink by -2.2% where previously 3.5% growth was forecast. Australian growth was slashed from 4.4% to just 0.9% as the economic outlook there deteriorated.

In terms of media, television remained the largest category while digital was the fastest growing, and within the latter Magna Global noted a rapid shift towards mobile, which is predicted to take 20% of all digital spending in 2014.

Social was the fastest-growing category within APAC digital, a 28% CAGR projected through to 2019 putting it ahead of video (26%) and mobile (25.6%).

Warc's own International Ad Forecast expects adspend in India to grow 14% this year, slowing to 13.5% in 2015. China will see growth of 12.3% in 2014, while Australia (+2.9%) and Japan (+2.3%) will demonstrate more modest growth by comparison.

Data sourced from Campaign Asia-Pacific; additional content by Warc staff