Adspend on the Rise in China

SHANGHAI: Advertising spending in China is expected to reach $44.9 billion this year, up 16 percent from 2009, according to a new forecast from GroupM.

GroupM also predicts that ad spending in China will reach $49.6 billion in 2011, an 11-percent gain over projected spending in 2010. This year’s growth is led by a 16-percent increase in projected spending on TV advertising, which was expected to increase from $24 billion in 2009 to $28 billion this year. The largest percentage gain is expected for Internet ad spending, which is forecast to rise from $3 billion in 2009 to almost $4 billion in 2010, representing a 30-percent spike.

Lucy Zhang, the futures director from GroupM China, said: "The media market is about to begin an era of hyper fragmentation, offering media agencies and advertisers a massive degree of choice when formulating media plans.” Zhang added, “This may come as a surprise to western advertisers who might not normally associate choice with China. The key challenge for advertisers in China is how agencies manage and evaluate this choice while striving for further media effectiveness and higher returns from media.”