Study: APAC ad revenues to grow by 6% to US$304bn in 2024

The advertising economy in APAC grew by +8.2% this year and its revenues are expected to increase by 6% to US$304 billion in 2024, representing a growth acceleration versus prior APAC expectations of +5.2%, according to MAGNA’s global advertising forecasts.  

This growth will consist of linear advertising revenues shrinking by 0.4% to reach US$74 billion (26% of total APAC budgets) and digital advertising revenues growing by 11.6% to reach 74% of total budgets. 

The majority of that US$74 billion of linear advertising revenues comes from television revenues (linear and digital) of US$47 billion, shrinking by 1.9% year-over-year. Print and radio continue to decline (by -2.6% and -2.2% respectively).  

Radio will represent just 2% of budgets in 2023, and print will be just 3% of budgets. Meanwhile, out-of-home (OOH) remains the only linear advertising format that is seeing growth, up by 8% in 2023 to reach 4% of total budgets. 

Television budgets will stabilise somewhat in 2024 due to the tailwinds of sporting events, primarily the Paris Olympics in 2024, said the report. Other significant global sporting events, such as the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament, will have a minor impact on APAC markets. 

The report also revealed that linear advertising revenues shrunk by 0.4% and that of digital advertising grew by 11.6%. Among linear advertising channels, print and radio continued to decline by 2.6% and 2.2% respectively while OOH is seeing growth of 8% in 2023. 

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Delving into digital advertising, search advertising contributes to 48% of digital advertising revenues and is its biggest contributor. Search advertising revenues increased by 9.9% this year with retail media platforms such as China’s Alibaba and JD.com, leading the way. 

Meanwhile, social media advertising revenues have also experienced growth this year by 16% to reach US$68 billion compared to the 12% growth in 2022. Interestingly, 84% of total digital advertising revenues are generated on mobile phones, highlighting a need for mobile-focused digital campaigns in 2024. 

Although purely digital player revenues still make up a significant portion of total digital revenues and drive digital growth in APAC markets, traditional media owners are diversifying away from linear TV and physical print properties to derive revenue from digital formats. 

Moving forward, advertisers should remain focused on search and social media advertising which are poised to grow by 7.7% and 10.2% respectively to represent a combined 80% of the total digital advertising dollars in the region, said the report. Other notable areas of revenue growth include digital video at 8.6% and OOH by 4% next year.  

A continued shift towards non-linear ad sales 

Traditional media owners (TMO) that historically focus on television, audio, publishing, OOH and cinema media are most susceptible to uncertain macro-economic and business climate, as some brands seek to reduce marketing budgets or prioritize performance-based digital ad formats, added the report. 

On the one hand, non-linear ad sales such as podcasting and digital out-of-home (DOOH) have increased by 7% this year to reach 20% of total TMO ad revenues on average. On the other hand, the growth is eroded by the 6.3% decline of traditional linear ad formats.  

In fact, television advertising revenues and publishing ad sales dropped by 6% and 5% respectively. The only traditional media types that have shown persistent growth this year other than OOH are cinema ads by 14%.  

Digital pure-play (DPP) ad formats that include search, commerce, social and short-form video grew by an estimated 10.5% largely due to the rise of eCommerce, retail media and digital media consumption. Social media sales such as that of Meta and TikTok increased by 15% after stagnating for most of 2022 while short-form pure-play video platforms such as YouTube and Twitch grew by 9%. 

When it comes to media vendor growth, Google, Meta and Amazon continued to dominate by capturing around 85% of digital ad spend and 56% of total ad spend. Among the top vendors, Amazon, Bytedance and Apple came up on top with advertising sales growth of about 20% each. 

In contrast, traditional media companies such as Disney and Warner's ad revenues declined by 14 to 15% while Discovery and RTL Group lost 7 to 8%. 

Industry-specific growth 

Automotive and travel were the most dynamic industry verticals in 2023. Interestingly, auto ad spend was up almost everywhere except the US but it is expected to join the growth club next year as electric cars become increasingly affordable, stated the report. 

Similarly, fast-moving consumer goods brands will benefit from lower inflation, retail media opportunities and the 2024 sports events. Pharma marketing also continues to grow organically driven by population ageing, competition, and innovation. 

On the other end, media and entertainment marketing activity is expected to slow down due to a lower volume of US shows and movies being released in 2024 due to Hollywood strikes in 2023 that lasted from July to November. 

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