Zenith Optimedia has cut its global advertising spend forecast for this year because of a slowdown in China, the world’s second largest advertising market.
Deepening economic troubles in Russia, too, have affected the forecast, the media agency has said, with 4.4 per cent growth – to US$544 billion – predicted worldwide for 2015, down by 0.5 per cent compared to the previous forecast last year.
China’s ad market is slowing in step with its economy, but it too remains healthy by international standards, Zenith reports.
“We forecast that Chinese adspend will grow 9.1 per cent this year – below the 10.5 per cent annual growth it averaged over the past five years, but more than twice the rate of the world as a whole. Between 2014 and 2017, we expect the Chinese ad market to enjoy an average growth rate of 8.5 per cent a year,” the report reads.
Global adspend will grow 4.4 per cent to reach in 2015, and will accelerate to 5.3 per cent growth in 2016, boosted by the 2016 Olympics and elections in the US.
Adspend will then slow down again in the absence of these events, growing 4.8 per cent in 2017.
Online video is the world’s fastest growing medium. It grew 34 per cent to US$10.9 billion in 2014, according to Zenith. The agency forecasts it to grow at an average of 29 per cent a year to reach US$23.3 billion in 2017.
Steve King, ZenithOptimedia’s CEO, Worldwide, said: “Online video combines the emotional connection of television with the efficient targeting and measurable effectiveness of digital display. While television will remain dominant for many years to come, advertisers are increasingly using online video as an invaluable complement, giving them new opportunities to communicate brand values to consumers.
