Digital ad spend in India will grow by 25% in 2018: Pitch Madison Advertising Report

Pitch Madison Advertising Report is the most awaited report on predictions of ad spends in the media and advertising industry. The report is launched by Pitch, in partnership with Madison World. The report talks about the ad spend in the previous and upcoming year for all mediums: Print, TV, OOH, Digital, Radio, and Cinema.

Under each sub-section I have added my thoughts.

• Total advertising spend in India: Rs 531.38 billion in 2017, a projection of Rs 595.30 billion for 2018
• India will see a 12% growth in advertising in 2018.
• 2016 to 2017 advertising spend grew by 7.4% (initially projected at 13.5%). The growth was hurt due to demonetization & introduction of GST.
• The Indian advertising market lost Rs 1,650 crore in the months of November-December 2016 due to demonetization.
• In 2017, digital grew by a remarkable 43%, crossing the Rs 7,300 Crore mark and was the only media not affected by demonetization.
• Leading advertisers in 2017: Hindustan Unilever, Amazon, Procter & Gamble, and Reckitt Benckiser.
• Growth registered in 2017: Digital (27.2%), Print (2.7%), TV (4.3%)

Indian Advertising Market Projection for 2018

• Digital, cinema, and television would be key contributors to ad spend growth in 2018.
• Growth in each medium in 2018: Digital (25%), Cinema (14%), TV (13%), Radio (10%), Outdoor (10%), Print (5%).
• FMCG, Telecom, BFSI and Real Estate will continue to be growth drivers for Digital while e-commerce will remain the backbone of digital ad spend.
• 8 state assembly elections are scheduled to be held in 2018. The primary beneficiary of political ad spend will be regional newspapers.
• By the end of 2018 media could see a jump in advertising revenue due to the upcoming 2019 General Elections (I pray the spend will be more online!)

Digital Ad Revenue in Indian Ad Market Revenue 2013 to 2018*

The number of Internet users in India was estimated to be 481 million in December 2017, a growth of 11.34% over December 2016 estimated figures. The number of internet users is expected to reach 500 million by June 2018, according to a report ‘Internet in India 2017’, published jointly by the Internet and Mobile Association of India & Kantar IMRB in February 2018. According to the report, as on December 2017, the overall internet penetration is 35% of total population.

While the digital ad revenues in India have improved the biggest concern amongst large publishers is that most of this revenue goes to Google and Facebook. To increase direct ad revenue, I strongly believe a publisher needs to have a huge differentiator in their offerings and most importantly pay a lot of attention to quality.

TV Ad Revenue in Indian Ad Market Revenue 2013 to 2018*

TV will remain as a strong medium for advertising. Advertising on TV is far more expensive than digital, yet it manages to attract more advertising revenues than digital (sigh!).

780 mn in 2017 compared to 675 mn in 2013 viewed TV in India. Homes owning TV jumped 19% (183 mn) in 2017. The number of rural households (99 mn) with a TV outnumbered the ones in the urban area (84 mn).

Print Ad Revenue in Indian Ad Market Revenue 2013 to 2018*

With growing literacy, the circulation of regional newspapers is on the rise. This has helped Print medium to grow their revenues year after year.

Radio Ad Revenue in Indian Ad Market Revenue 2013 to 2018*

These days we get to hear a lot more political ads on the radio. With the increase in vehicular traffic jams advertising on the radio makes a lot of sense. But then spending online is what I recommend (my unbiased opinion!).

Also see,

• Full Report: Digital Ad Spend Pitch Report 2018
• Digital Ad Spend to account for 20% of total ad spend in India 2018
• Advertisers demand toxic-free content on Facebook and Google
• India to witness 37% increase in digital ad revenue in 2015
• Elections in 2018-19 could give boost to digital ad revenues in India