Ad expenditure in India seen growing to ₹69,347 crore this year

With a marginal increase of 0.2%, the advertising expenditure in India is expected to grow at 13.2% to touch ₹69,347 crore in 2018, according to a mid-year forecast by WPP-owned media agency GroupM in its June report This Year Next Year (TYNY).

Recently, IPG Media brands-owned media agency Magna predicted that Indian ad expenditure will grow at 12.5% to touch ₹68,000 crore in 2018.

According to the GroupM report, sports and elections will drive television advertising in India. Although print will grow at a slower rate (around 4%) election spending will provide relief. Radio is expected to do well, driven by local-focused categories such as retail, services and e-commerce. Cinema and outdoor, which is growing at 20% and 15% respectively, will see good growth as technology adoption increases and makes them more ad-friendly. Digital, the fastest growing medium of the media pie, will continue to grow at 30% to reach ₹12,337 crore.

The report stated that the initial estimates show that ad expenditure will pick up in 2019 growing at 14.2% to touch ₹79, 165 crore . The majority of spends will come from television (45.6%) followed by newspapers (23.7%) and internet (20.3%).

“The Indian adex seems to have rebounded from the sluggishness we saw in 2017. We expect 2019 to be even better than the current year,” said CVL Srinivas, country manager, WPP India and CEO, GroupM South Asia.

Automobile advertising growth is expected to be high next year as car, scooter, luxury bikes and commercial vehicle segments will see good sales growth in 2019, driven by urban demand and infrastructure investment. Telecom ad growth will be driven by mobile handsets.

Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) spends will be modest given the prospect of higher raw material costs affecting margins.

Consumer durables ad spends will witness average to high growth because of low penetration in consumer appliances, shorter replacement cycles and extreme weather conditions.