The advertising and marketing sector in India is enjoying a good run. The Indian advertising industry has evolved from being a small-scale business to a full-fledged blooming industry, and is now considered among the top 10 contributors to ad spend growth along with other markets such as US, China, Indonesia, UK, Philippines, Japan and Germany. The advertising industry is projected to be the second fastest growing advertising market in Asia after China. It is estimated that by 2018, the share of ad spend in India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be around 0.45%. Growth is expected in retail advertisement, on the back of factors such as several players entering the food and
beverages segment, e-commerce gaining traction in the country, and domestic companies testing out the waters. The rural region is a potentially profitable target.
According to a forecast report from Zenith media agency, owned by Publicis Groupe—a French multinational advertising and public relations company—Indian advertising expenditure is expected to grow at 11.2% to reach Rs. 54,344 crore in 2017 in its latest ‘Advertising Expenditure Forecast’ report. Tagged under FastTrack Asian country, India is one of the few large markets where all traditional advertising platforms are expected to
grow. Television advertising is expected to grow 11%, print 7.6% and other media, which also includes outdoor along with radio and cinema, are expected to witness growth between 7% and 12%. Although digital, growing at 30%, is the fastest-growing medium
in the country, its share of spending still remains relatively low as compared to traditional media like print and television.
According to another market research by India Brand Equity Foundation, an initiative of the
Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, India’s advertising industry is expected to grow at a rate of 16.8% year-on year to Rs. 51,365 crore (US$ 7.61 billion) in 2016, buoyed by positive industry sentiment and a strong GDP growth of 7% and above. India’s digital advertising market has grown at a pace of 33% annually between 2010 and 2015, while spending as a percentage of total advertising increased to 13% or nearly US$ 1 billion in 2015.
Print contributes a significant portion to the total advertising revenue, accounting for almost 41.2%, whereas TV contributes 38.2%, and digital contributes 11% of the total revenue. Outdoor, radio and cinema make up the balance 10%. Of the current Rs 2,750
crore (US$ 407.66 million) digital advertisement market, search and display contribute the most – search advertisements constitute 38% of total advertisement spends followed by display advertisement at 29%, as per the study.
The significance of these reports for the print industry is that it all points to a steady growth, especially for Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising. According to the Zenith Advertising
Expenditure Forecast report, OOH is expected to grow between 7% and 12% in 2017. The media agency in its reports stated events such as state elections in Uttar Pradesh and
Punjab, the upcoming Champions Trophy as well as growth of regional newspapers and television which should drive steady growth of ad spends in 2017.
Tanmay Mohanty, group chief executive officer, Zenith India said, “Ad spending in India is on a steady growth curve and is likely to stay that way in 2017. In November, the central
government introduced reform in the form of demonetization of high value currency notes, which is leading to some contraction in ad spends. We expect the demand for goods and services to pick up and this shortfall to be temporary. In fact, we expect 2017 to see increased ad spending by categories such as mobile wallets, telecom 4G, banking,
financial services and insurance (BFSI), mobile handsets, FMCG and consumer durables.”
