Higher spending to keep ad industry on track

Advertising expenditure in China will continue to grow at a steady clip, and post year-on-year growth rates of over 8.3 percent in 2015, compared with 7.4 percent in 2013, Carat, the leading global media network owned by Dentsu Aegis Network, says in its advertising expenditure forecast in 2015.

That is in accordance with the global trend of continuous growth in ad spending. The Carat report also shows that global advertising revenue is expected to surge 4.8 percent year-on-year to $551 billion this year.

This is an upward revision to the 4.5 percent forecast in the previous Carat Advertising Spend report issued in September 2013 and a notable increase on the actual 3.3 percent growth in 2013, said the report based on data collated from 59 markets across the world.

Carat predicts that global advertising expenditure in 2015 will continue to be robust with an anticipated 5 percent year-on-year growth around the world. The data also indicates that the era of double-digit decline in some parts of Western Europe is over and some markets including Italy, which had declined by 10.3 percent in 2013, are heading for positive growth by 2015.

In the media sector, digital spending has been increasing at a more rapid pace, with global growth rate expected to be around 15.5 percent this year. Digital media will outperform all other media and will be the only media sector that will extend its market share based on 2014 and 2015 predictions.

In the United Kingdom, Denmark, The Netherlands , Norway and Sweden, digital media has already become the main driver for media sector growth.

Jerry Buhlmann, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network, said that the predictions echo the increasingly positive economic sentiment they are hearing from industry-leading clients and partners.

"With 2014 looking bright er than we previously anticipated and further momentum gathering in 2015, the outlook for advertising expenditure is healthy," he said.

Digital growth accounts for three times the total growth, and the seismic trends within the digital business are causing a convergent media revolution, according to Buhlmann. Social, mobile and video will all grow by at least 50 percent in 2014 through developments in powerful technology, access to information and increasing consumer trust.

Whilst the prolific sporting events including the Winter Olympics in Sochi and the World Cup in Brazil will continue to drive TV advertising spend in 2014, the gold medal winners will ultimately be the digital world, he said.