Advertising heard growth – Newspaper Kommersant No. 13 (7458) of 01/25/2023

Unlike TV and the Internet, radio advertising sales did not fall in 2022 and even managed to show growth by 5-10% by 2021. The fact is that the share of foreign brands that left the country in the income of radio holdings was relatively small, investments from developers and the state helped to improve the result. The results could have been even better if not for the two-fold drop in investments of automakers, who traditionally were in the lead in terms of advertising costs on radio, market participants note.

Radio advertising sales showed a slight increase in 2022 compared to 2021, Kommersant was told in the surveyed radio holdings and advertising groups. According to OMD OM Group, the market as a whole increased by 5% by 2021, by 30% by 2020, but has not yet reached the levels of 2019: the fall in relation to it was 8%. Okkam estimates growth by 2021 at the level of 5-10%, ADV – 8%. Group4Media talks about growth by 7%, up to 15 billion rubles, NMi Group – at least 10%.

For the Russian Media Group (Maximum, Radio Monte-Carlo, Russian Radio, Hit FM) by the end of the year, “we were talking about positive dynamics,” says its managing director Dmitry Mednikov, without specifying the numbers: “A small drawdown occurred in the first half of the year and due to the departure of a number of brands, but by the middle of the year the situation had improved.”

Sales of advertising on radio in Moscow grew by 5-7%, said the deputy general director for sales and business development of the Gazprom-Media sales house (it sells advertising on GPM Radio, Detskoye Radio, Relax FM, City FM radio stations) etc.) Alina Efimova, without disclosing specific data on the holding. In the “European Media Group” (“Europe Plus”, “Retro FM”) did not answer “Kommersant”.

Large holdings, due to package offers, pulled budgets over to themselves, small independent radio stations were less fortunate, says Irina Mikheeva, executive director of NMi Group. An interlocutor of Kommersant in the radio market notes that the income of music stations was growing, while information stations were falling, because advertisers did not want to “stand next to a negative agenda.”

The share of foreign advertisers on radio was not as significant as on TV and on the Internet, so their outflow did not affect the situation so much. According to Alina Efimova, the share of foreign advertisers in the industry’s income used to be 15%. Dmitry Mednikov says that in the structure of RMG’s income among the top 50 advertisers in 2021, foreign brands accounted for 27%, in 2022 – 11%.

The growth of the segment as a whole was due to activity in the categories of real estate, food products and medical services, Mikhail Eliseikin, Director of Trading and Media Partnerships at Group4Media, notes: “For example, FGC, which is not among the top radio advertisers in 2021, ranked third place. The segment was supported by the advertisement of the state program “National Priorities”. Irina Mikheeva notes the appearance on the radio of new small advertisers from the “beauty and health” category, which were previously posted on social networks, and in 2022 were looking for new platforms.

A negative factor for the market was the departure of almost all major automakers from the Russian Federation: this category was one of the leaders in investments in radio, says Andrey Skorodumov, head of the OMD OM Group media procurement performance department. The car market’s investment in radio fell twofold, says Mikhail Eliseikin. The “uncertainty factor in the spring and early summer”, when advertisers took an extremely cautious position, did not show better results, adds Andrei Yakovitsky, managing director for commercial activities at Okkam.

Market participants still prefer not to make forecasts for this year. The beginning of the year is traditionally a low season on the radio, says Ekaterina Rybakova, director of the Press and Radio divisions of the ADV group: “The first quarter will show neither significant growth nor decline.” Competition among Chinese auto brands is growing in the car market, their demand for advertising will increase, says Maria Sukhoruchkina, deputy operating director of Igronik, but the situation is more uncertain regarding developers.

Valeria Lebedeva