MUMBAI: The year is coming to an end, and it’s time to introspect. Various studies will be done to review how the years went by. Was it good, bad or ugly?

As far as media owner advertising is concerned, the revenue grew by 3.2 per cent in 2013 to $ 489.6 billion at a global level, even though the economic environment remained weak throughout 2013, according to the study by Magna Global.

Around the global average growth of +3.3 per cent for advertising revenues in 2013, Latin America once again showed the strongest growth (+9.5 per cent), followed by Eastern Europe (+7.9 per cent) and Asia Pacific (+6.3 per cent). On the other end, developed markets showed little or no growth: North America +1.5 per cent, Western Europe -0.8 per cent.

“That level of economic activity is not particularly impressive by historical standards but confidence indices keep improving and we believe advertising spending will reflect and amplify that economic trend,” said Magna Global India director intelligence EVP Venkatesh S in the report.

Asia Pacific advertising revenue grew by an average of +6.3% in 2013 to $148.7bn. Television continues to remain the largest media category in APAC, and will grow by +5.1% in 2013, up from +4.3% in 2012 to reach market share of 42.3% of total spend in the region. However, it will gradually fall below 40 per cent share in the next five years.

Digital is the fastest growing category and will grow by +22.4% in 2013 to reach $33.6bn, as per the study. Newspaper and magazines continue to lose ground at -1.4% and -3.1% CAGR through 2018, respectively, and together print will only represent 21.8 per cent of total spend in 2013, down from 32.2 per cent of total spend as recently as 2008. As a whole, the APAC region now represents approximately 30 per cent of total global spend.

Within APAC, China and Japan represent nearly two thirds of the total APAC advertising revenues. However, China is growing quickly and will surpass Japan for the top spot in APAC as soon as 2015. But the development of the markets within APAC varies significantly with some very advanced markets such as Australia and some much underdeveloped markets like India. This disparity can also be seen in the share of digital spend, with India’s digital market share at 7.4 per cent of total spend in 2013 vs. Australia’s at 32.7 per cent of total spend.

Rise of social media

The biggest game changer, this year, has been the rise of social media and, more specifically mobile social media. In the last 18 months, social media usage has migrated towards portable devices and platforms at a faster rate than most anticipated.

The impressive success of tablets in the Western world and the rapid penetration of feature phones and smartphones in the developing world have contributed to this rapid shift in consumer usage. At the same time, social media owners (Facebook and Twitter most significantly) have introduced ad formats specifically matched to those portable devices that have met with instant success among marketers without alienating users.

Globally, the social media advertising grew by 58 per cent this year, to $9.1bn, of which $2.9bn came from mobile social (+ 300 per cent), the forecast company said in the report.

Looking forward

The company predicts the economic conditions to improve for good in 2014. It expects the global advertising revenue to grow by +6.5 per cent (previously: +6.1 per cent) to reach $521.6bn, which will be the strongest year-on-year growth since 2010 (+8.4 per cent, following the 2009 recession).

Said Magna Global’s director of global forecasting EVP Vincent Letang in the report, “The combination of an improved economic environment and stronger-than-usual cyclical drivers is bound to unlock marketing and branding budgets in 2014. This will primarily benefit television and digital media where new formats and opportunities are being explored for activation and branding campaigns”.