RACA: advertising market in Russia fell by 6% over the first half of the year

The total volume of advertising costs in the first half of 2022 amounted to 250 billion rubles, which is 6% less than in the same period of the previous year. Such data are given in the report of the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia (Kommersant has it). In the first quarter, according to ACAR, the market grew by 5%, and in the second quarter, purchases fell by 16%.

At the same time, for the second quarter in a row, ACAR does not publish estimates in figures for certain market segments (TV advertising, Internet advertising, outdoor advertising, etc.). The association explains this decision by the fact that the reduction of not only demand, but also supply (withdrawal from the Russian market of a number of Internet resources, magazines, content providers, etc.) “significantly complicated the process of assessing the volume of the advertising market” and experts “seriously disagreed in estimating volumes. The ACAR only notes that in all segments, the reduction in volumes amounted to double-digit numbers, “moreover, in a number of them, the decline was several tens of percent.”

Previously, forecasts and estimates of the market decline in 2022 were given by individual advertising groups, and they were more pessimistic. In the consolidated forecast of OMD OM Group, published in July, it was said that in the second quarter the Russian advertising market accelerated the decline to 45% against 5% in January-March, and the overall decline for the first half was 26%, to 190 billion rubles. Among individual market segments, according to the group, advertising on the Internet showed the largest drop – its volume in January-June decreased by 34%, to 91 billion rubles. This is more than advertising in the press, where investments were reduced by 29%, to 3 billion rubles. Investments in television advertising decreased only by 17%, to 74 billion rubles, in outdoor advertising – by 18%, to 17 billion rubles. Least of all, according to OMD OM Group, advertising on the radio suffered the least, decreasing in January-June by only 3%, to 6 billion rubles.

Group4Media (formerly GroupM) predicted in June that advertising spending would drop by 38% this year to no more than RUB 358 billion. The Russian advertising holding NMI Group said in March that, given the statements of American and European companies about full or partial withdrawal from the Russian market, it could lose 50% or more of its revenue year on year.

Read about the situation with personnel in the advertising market in the material “Advertisers crippled”.

Valeria Lebedeva