Despite being the fastest growing economic region in the world, it’s a mixed outlook for adspend across APAC markets, according to the latest advertising spend forecasts from Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN).

India and China are on very different growth paths and the network has revised 2020 growth forecast for the region down by 0.7% to 4.2%.

  • India continues to go from strength to strength, anticipating double-digit growth of +10.9% in 2020 and +12% in 2021 owing to a surge in smart phone adoption creating a boom in mobile innovation.
  • Growth in China slows to 5.6%, revised down from 6.9%, and DAN forecasts a continued slowdown into 2021. This is alongside the economy’s moderated growth in recent years, as well as slowing retail sales and industrial output.
  • In Southeast Asia, growth projections for Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand have been scaled back while the Philippines (+4.7%) and Malaysia (+0.7%) experienced more growth than predicted in its June report. Malaysia has performed strongly, with a positive economic outlook creating a spending appetite for advertisers.
  • South Korea has halved its growth projections since June 2019 to 2.3%, while Hong Kong’s growth has stalled after a difficult year in 2019 (-10.9% versus 2018).

Globally, the agency network is forecasting growth of 3.9% in 2020, amounting to US$615.4 billion, building on growth of 2.6% in 2019. The forecast noted that 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.

That said, APAC continues to be the most digitally advanced region in the world. According to DAN, digital’s share of total ad spend exceeds 51%, led by China (67.7%), Hong Kong (60.1%), Australia (55.8%) and New Zealand (54.7%).

APAC remains OOH biggest market and is expected to continue to grow in 2020 by 2%, with digital OOH the main source of the growth. DAN added that the lines between digital and traditional media will continue to blur, boosting traditional formats with TV and radio showing signs of recovery globally in 2020. Meanwhile, voice assistants, addressable TV and programmatic ads are also driving spending in these more traditional mediums.

Ashish Bhasin, the chief executive for APAC at DAN said the region continues to lead the digitalisation of the global economy.

“China is the largest smartphone market in the world, with India overtaking the US in 2018 to be the second – the merging of mobile with traditional formats will continue to be an opportunity for growth in this region as markets mature. Global marketeers should look to APAC for developments in tech and mobile to discover opportunities to innovate their consumer offering and create long-term retention and value,” he added.

Sourced from Marketing Interactive, The Drum Asia