Digital ad spend set to grow 27% in 2020: DAN report

The ad spend on digital media is expected to grow by 27% to touch ₹17,377 crore by 2020 end, said a Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) report. According to the report, Digital Advertising in India 2020, digital ad spend grew 26% in 2019 to reach ₹13,683 crore.

At ₹26,869 crore, TV continued to lead in revenue share though it fell from 40% in 2018 to 39% in 2019. Print took second place at 29% with ₹20,110 crore and then digital at 20%.

The report said that 2019 has seen some reduction in advertising spends owing to the decreased economic growth. “Some of the industry segments, viz. Auto, BFSI [Banking, financial services and insurance] and Real Estate have started looking at their return on investments more due to this and are spending cautiously with big launches postponed to the next year,” it said. However, the three biggest events of the year—the Indian Premier League (IPL), the World Cup and the general elections in addition to the Pro-Kabbadi League (PKL) and festive period, lifted overall ad spends, it added.

“2019 was a challenging year for the Indian advertising industry as well. With the economic slowdown, advertisers decided to cut back on spends, consumers decided to wait and watch, market sentiments reached a new low and India’s Ad Expenditure (AdEx) witnessed a consequential fall. But even in the midst of it all, digital continued to grow,” Anand Bhadkamkar, CEO, DAN India said.

DAN predicts that the share of television will remain steady through 2020, spends on print will decline to 27% by the end of 2020. “According to BARC India, 34% of the households in India are yet to be connected to a television set. This provides the medium with massive headroom for growth,” it said.

The report points out that overall, the Indian advertising industry has grown at a rate of 9.4% over 2018 to reach ₹68,475 crore by the end of 2019 and expects it to grow by 10.9% to reach ₹75,952 crore by 2020 end.

“The Media and Advertising industry is shifting at a rapid speed and Digital is certainly taking charge. Consumers are leaving behind huge digital footprints and there is a lot more emphasis on managing data and developing martech [marketing technology] capabilities, now. 2020 is expected to witness a major change in advertising in India, with digital becoming a bigger medium. In fact, by 2021, its growth should surpass that of print,” Ashish Bhasin, CEO, APAC and chairman, India, Dentsu Aegis Network, said.

The report says that print has seen a slower growth with its media spends share declining from 31% in 2018 to 29% in 2019. “English newspapers have been facing stiff competition from the Digital platforms which has led to a drop in readership. Regional print publications have, on the other hand, witnessed growth in ad spends, offsetting the growth for the overall medium,” the report said.

Bhasin said that despite this progressive swing, the industry has failed to come together to agree upon a common measurement metric for digital. “Out of Home (OOH) has seen a growth of 9% from 2018 to 2019 to sustain the media spends share of 6%. Being the fourth-largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity and the increasing per-capita income, growing middle class and working population have been monumental in generating huge domestic demand for goods, especially in the domains of leisure and entertainment,” the report said.

It highlighted that advertising spends on digital media is led by social media with the highest share of 28%, contributing ₹3,835 crore to the Indian digital advertising pie. “This is followed by spends on Paid Search (23%), Online Video (22%) and Display Media (21%). Display Media, Online Video and Social Media are expected to have the fastest growth in 2020. The share of Paid Search is expected to reduce from 25% to 23% by the end of 2020,” DAN said.

DAN expects that by 2020, advertising spends on mobile devices is expected to grow by 41% to have a share of 52% to the digital advertising market, overtaking spends share on desktop. Furthermore, the expected spends on mobile devices will reach a share of 64% by 2022, it said, due to the advancements in marketing technologies and subsequent fusion with marketing creativity, along with the advent of 5G technology and increased adoption of e-commerce advertising will lead to the evolution of content for the next 500 million Internet users.