Two of India’s leading media agency networks have a slightly divergent view on the rate of growth of advertising investment for 2017. While GroupM expects the advertising expenditure growth to be lower in 2017 compared to 2016, Pitch Madison Advertising says the growth this year will be a tad higher in comparison to last year.
GroupM in its report titled ‘This Year Next Year 2017,’ which was released at Mumbai’s ITC Grand Central Hotel on 14 February, says that India’s advertising investment is expected to reach an estimated Rs. 61,204 crore in 2017, a growth of 10% for the calendar year 2017 over the corresponding period in 2016. This growth rate, however, is lower than 12% seen in 2016.
Pitch Madison Advertising Report 2017, which was released on 16 February, states that growth in the Indian advertising market will be 13.5% in 2017, ahead of the 12.5% growth rate seen last year. The report adds that growth rate will be very sluggish at 8% during the period from January to April 2017 mainly because of demonetization but will then accelerate to 14% from May to October 2017 and 24% in November and December 2017. Madison pegs the advertising investment market to reach Rs. 56,152 crore this year.
According to GroupM, the digital advertising expenditure will lead the growth with growth rate of 30% in 2017 to reach Rs. 9,490 crore. Digital is estimated to take a 15.5% share of the total advertising expenditure this year. Advertising expenditure growth for newspapers will be modest in 2017 at 4.5%. The market is expected to reach Rs 18,258 crore. Vernacular and regional newspapers will see a higher growth rate compared to English newspapers.
The biggest segment for advertising expenditure continues to be television. This year, the growth rate for the television medium will be 8% with the market expected to be worth Rs. 27,378 crore, according to the GroupM report. Advertising spend for radio is expected to grow at a little over 10% to reach Rs. 2,464 crore.
Pitch Madison Advertising Report 2017 also has a similar growth trajectory for all the major segments. Advertising expenditure growth for digital will be 25% to reach Rs. 9,144 crore in 2017 while print will see the slowest growth rate of 9.5% to touch Rs. 19,869 crore. Television, which is expected to be the biggest segment, will see advertising expenditure grow at 13.1% to reach Rs. 21,296 crore. Radio will grow at 14.8% to reach Rs 2,008 crore.
Both GroupM and Pitch Madison point that FMCG will continue to be the dominant contributor to advertising expenditure in 2017. Auto, telecom and eCommerce would be other major contributors.
