GroupM Releases Indian Ad Projections

NEW YORK, September 17:
Advertising expenditures in India will rise 20 percent this year to $5.6
billion and 19 percent next year to $6.6 billion, according to GroupM’s This
Year, Next Year: India Media Forecasts.

"India is clearly set
to deliver sustained long-term advertising growth," said Adam Smith, the
London-based futures director at GroupM. "It is also one of the world's
most under-advertised countries since measured advertising investment accounts
for only one-half percent of GDP, compared to a global norm of around one
percent.”

India is set to become the
15th largest ad market worldwide in 2009, rising from 26th in 2000. Its growth
rate has far outpaced the rest of the world. Globally, measured advertising
investment has grown by almost 50 percent since 2000 to a projected $496
billion in 2008. In the same time period, ad expenditures in India have nearly
quadrupled, from $1.5 billion to this year’s projected $5.6 billion. India will
be contributing one in 20 of all new ad dollars expected in 2009, making it the
third largest developing ad economy in the world behind China and Russia.

—By Mansha Daswani