Advertising market grew by 8% in the first quarter, to 140-145 billion rubles – Kommersant

The total volume of advertising in the means of its distribution in the first quarter grew by 8% year-on-year and amounted to 140–145 billion rubles, according to the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia (ACAR).

The regional advertising market, starting from mid-2022, the association notes, shows higher dynamics compared to the federal market. “Although this does not happen in all segments, in general, such a trend is clearly visible,” the message says. Thus, the volume of the domestic regional advertising market (excluding Moscow) in four media segments – television, radio, press and outdoor advertising – reached 9.5-9.7 billion rubles, which is about 12% more than the previous year.

The Igronik company notes that this year advertising budgets in the quarter are quite high in all media, but especially in the television and UN (Out-of-Home) segment. However, we must not forget that the basis for the calculation is the first quarter of 2022 and the CBO, recalls the managing director of the united buying division of the group of companies Anastasia Sergeeva: “Then foreign advertisers left, and our Russian brands took a break to reformat the budgets, change the creative and adjust sales forecasts and marketing costs.

Havas Media (ADV group) also notes the growth of a number of media – the Internet, outdoor advertising and radio. “Despite the high base of the first quarter, there are also actively growing segments in TV – ecosystems, banks, marketplaces and fast food,” added Dmitry Ulyashenko, CEO of the organization.

Advertising is a derivative of the Russian economy, which indicates a high degree of adaptation to the crisis and the ability to grow in the face of uncertainty, says NMi Group Executive Director Irina Mikheeva. According to her, the increase in market volumes ranges from 13.5-15%. “Colleagues from ACAR give an estimate of the volume of advertising distribution in traditional media, which does not take into account e-commerce, which continues to move the market and increase volumes,” Ms. Mikheeva notes.

The ACAR explained that as a result of “radical changes in the domestic advertising market” that affected the structures of advertisers, advertising agencies, advertising platforms, difficulties arose with assessing the volume of the advertising market, especially in terms of individual segments. This was influenced by two groups of factors, the association adds: “Firstly, the Russian advertising market has lost some of the important sources of information, which have not yet been fully replaced, it takes time.” Secondly, new sub-segments and directions are currently developing most rapidly on the market, for which there is still no common understanding of how to take into account and verify their volumes, RACA reported.

If we do not take into account the base of 2022, then the financial sector, retail, real estate are strong in all media in different shares, Ms. Sergeeva says about the growth drivers of the first quarter. She clarifies that these are the main categories of advertisers at the moment. “We must not forget that in absolute terms, budget growth is due to inflation — in TV and the UN in 2023 it was especially pronounced,” recalls Anastasia Sergeeva.

Ms. Mikheeva clarifies that the growth in the first quarter is due to the growth of the budgets of Russian advertisers, the entry of new players into the advertising market, the growth of e-com as a separate media, as well as the marketing activity of advertisers from friendly countries.

Igronik also expects growth in the second quarter, primarily due to the same “low base effect” and the drawdown in the second quarter of 2022. The trend is also confirmed by Havas Media. “This growth is not due to a post-crisis jump, but rather a strong drop in market volumes in the second and third quarters of 2022, with which a comparative analysis is being carried out,” explains the NMi Group.

Julia Yurasova