Global ad spends to grow 3.9% in 2020: Dentsu Aegis

KUALA LUMPUR: Global ad spend is expected to grow by 3.9% this year amounting to US$615.4 billion, according to Dentsu Aegis Network's latest advertising spend forecasts.

Dentsu Aegis said events such as the Tokyo Olympics, UEFA European Football Championships, US presidential elections and APEC Malaysia would be significant drivers of increased ad spend around the world as advertisers look to capitalise on huge global audiences.

“Our forecasts for Asia Pacific show ad spend growth of 4.2 per cent with a drill down showing growth in Malaysia of 4.5 per cent, Australia (3.8 per cent), China (5.6 per cent), Japan (2.0 per cent), and India growing by double digits at 10.9 per cent — largely driven by digital, which is in part powered by booming smartphone adoption,” it said in a statement today.

For Malaysia, digital continues to energise ad spend growth in 2020 and is forecast to grow 17.2%, reaching US$522 million and 37.7% of total spend.

Growth remains strong into 2021 putting digital’s share of ad spend at 41.9% at the start of the new decade, it noted.

“Within digital, mobile and video are fuelling expansion. Both are forecast to show strong momentum in 2020 with 23.3 per cent and 42 per cent growth,” it said.

Meanwhile, TV and newspapers are predicted to take home 16.3% and 25.2% of ad spend share respectively, with out-of-home, cinema and radio claiming 9.1%, 3.4% and 7.5% of the share, it added

Digital offers the potential to breathe new life into all traditional formats in the Malaysia market as voice assistants, addressable TV and programmatic ads drive global spending in these mediums.

Satya Das, acting head of Dentsu Aegis’ media trading and investment arm Amplifi Malaysia, said advertising expenditure is becoming increasingly fragmented year-on-year.

“Trends from 2019 into 2020 indicate that ad spend will be directed towards content creation, performance campaigns, social media, technology development, market automation data and identifying brand-building opportunities that offer improved market share and brand scores.

“We will also see an increased focus on digital media, energised by programmatic and data science,” he said.