India's ad spends to grow over 10% to reach $9 billion this year: Report

Regional live events such as Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics Games continue to be a significant driver of growth in TV ad spend in APAC, which is expected to increase 3.9 percent in 2021 to reach $59.2 billion.

India's advertising spend is estimated to grow 10.8 percent this year to reach $9 billion, following a steep 12.9 percent decline in 2020, according to a report by Dentsu, a digital marketing communications company.

According to the report, TV continues to be the most popular media in India, with a leading 40.9 percent share of spend that shows resilience despite the pandemic and a 7.7 percent growth compared to 2020 spends.

Digital’s share of spend has grown rapidly, from 20 percent in 2019 to 29.4 percent in 2021, and is expected to reach 32.7 percent by the end of 2022.

The country's ad market is expected to grow by a further 12.4 percent in 2022, recovering to pre-pandemic levels, particularly led by digital and TV. As for other mediums, print, cinema, out of home (OOH) and radio will see a longer recovery period.

The report also noted that ad spends in Asia Pacific (APAC) region is expected to grow by eight percent or $17 billion to $229 billion in 2021.

In the region, Australia and India are forecasting particularly high growth rates in 2021, with 2021 growth expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels in China.

"Australia and India are two of the top year-on-year growth markets, forecasting a surge in ad spend," said Ashish Bhasin, CEO APAC, Dentsu international.

Regional live events such as Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics Games continue to be a significant driver of growth in TV ad spend in APAC, which is expected to increase 3.9 percent in 2021 to reach $59.2 billion.

However, the Dentsu data suggests a shift towards connected TV (CTV) and over-the-top (OTT) and reveals that audiences are moving more towards digital media consumption which will mean linear TV spend will remain below pre-pandemic levels until beyond 2021.

In terms of industries which will see growth in ad spend this year, it will come as a little surprise that government spending will be a key growth area, supporting the COVID vaccine rollout and other related initiatives, the report said.

In APAC’s key markets, the travel and transport sectors, will still be affected by the uncertainty of the past year and see a muted increase in demand and spend will increase 4.9 percent, while media and entertainment is estimated to see 9.7 percent growth.