Growth in global advertising spend is expected to reach 3.8% in 2019, amounting to US$625bn, with some markets in Asia-Pacific – especially China and India – contributing above average rates of growth to the worldwide increase.

That is according to Dentsu Aegis Network, whose latest adspend report forecasts that Asia-Pacific will generate 4.5% growth this year, down slightly from 4.6% in 2018.

However, individual markets within the region are expected to witness widely different rates of adspend growth this year, ranging from 0.6% in Japan to 2.4% in Australia and 7% in China, rising to 10.6% in India.

In China, the advertising market is forecast to be worth Rmb 682bn (around US$104bn) in 2019 and account for 17% of global adspend.

Meanwhile, several other major markets are also expected to record respectable – or even surprisingly high levels of growth – this year.

These include the UK, where, despite political uncertainties around Brexit, the country’s adspend forecast has been upgraded from 4.7% to 6.1% in 2019, which Dentsu said reflected its digital maturity. The UK market is also expected to grow further in 2020, increasing by 7.1%.

Canada’s adspend is expected to rise from 3.7% to 5.2% in 2019, reflecting its wider economic growth trajectory that is supported by strong oil and gas exports, but growth of just 0.5% is forecast for Germany and Russia has seen its growth forecast slashed to 6.9% this year from 12% in 2018.

Not surprisingly, digital adspend is growing fast and Dentsu forecast that spending on the channel will grow by 12% this year, reaching US$254bn.

In 2019, it will account for more than 41% of global adspend in the 59 markets that Dentsu surveyed, rising to almost two-thirds share in China (63%).

And in the US, where digital adspend is forecast to grow by 12.3% to US$82.8bn, it is expected that digital will overtake TV for the first time this year to take 37% of the total share. “This represents a major landmark in a market where television has for decades been king,” the report said.

Sourced from Dentsu Aegis Network; additional content by WARC staff