Demand for new smartphones and 5G to fuel 4.5 % annual growth in telecoms adspend to 2023

Media agency Zenith predicts that telecoms advertising will grow at an average rate of 4.5 per cent a year to 2023 as its recovers from an 8.7 per cent decline in 2020, according to Zenith’s Business Intelligence – Telecommunications report. Telecoms adspend in the 12 key markets included in the report will rise from US$17.8 billion in 2020 to US$18.7 billion in 2021, and then return to its pre-pandemic level of US$19.5 billion in 2022.

Smartphone sales will start to spring back this year once consumers feel more confident in their future. Consumers are becoming more willing to finance and purchase handsets independently from their network providers, giving manufacturers and retailers a greater incentive to advertise handsets themselves. Meanwhile, the networks will seek to recoup their investment in 5G licences and infrastructure through new services and more expensive data packages. All these trends will help fuel healthy growth in telecoms advertising over the next three years. Zenith predicts telecoms adspend will grow 4.7 per cent in 2021, 4.4 per cent in 2022 and 4.3 per cent in 2023.