APAC ad economy to grow 8% despite economic uncertainty: report

The Asia Pacific advertising economy will grow by 8% this year, following the 2021 rebound (18%) and versus the global forecast of 9%, powered by large markets such as China (8%) and India (15%), according to research by media intelligence company Magna.

Why it matters

APAC’s experience with COVID-19 throughout 2021 has been mixed, causing pullbacks on advertising activity, but the pandemic and a home-centric lifestyle have changed consumer behaviour: more streaming, more e-commerce and more integration of digital platforms is driving digital advertising spending.

Key insights

• In 2023, the Asia Pacific ad market will expand by 7%, slightly higher than the global average of 6% and in line with pre-pandemic long-term regional growth.
• APAC advertising revenues next year will increase to US$273bn – 35% above the pre-pandemic spending level, driven by digital advertising growth (plus 12%).
• In 2022, China’s digital ad formats are seeing spending increase by 11% to reach CNY 652bn (US$101bn), representing 81% of total advertising budgets.
• Australia’s advertising market will grow by 10% this year to reach A$22.8bn (US$17.1bn), with digital ad spending increasing 13% to A$16.6bn or 73% of total adspend.
• Japan’s linear ad revenues (linear TV, radio, print, OOH) are up 3% to 2.6tn yen (US$24.3 billion), as TV (+4%), OOH (+3%), radio (+1%) experience stability or slow growth in ad revenues.
• The Indian ad market bounced back by 22.5% in 2021, and India will be the fastest-growing market in the top 15 ad markets this year and next to remain the 12^th-largest market globally.
• Singapore’s ad sales are up 11% at S$2.7bn (US$2bn) in 2022, with linear advertising revenues 8% higher, representing 60% of total budgets following the 15% rebound in 2021.
• The Indonesian ad market will grow 10% this year to 133tn rupiah (US$9.3bn), with ad spending to continue its strong performance heading into 2023 (7% growth expected).

Background

The Magna research is media-centric and monitors net media owners’ advertising revenues, based on a bottom-up analysis of financial reports and data from media trade organisations, with other ad market studies based on tracking ad insertions or consolidating agency billings.