Global ad spending is a top-heavy affair. China’s second-place total ad spending, which includes digital plus all traditional media like TV and radio, will exceed Western Europe’s combined spending this year, at $105.25 billion compared with $102.10 billion. By 2024, China will shoot past the $150 billion mark, far exceeding Western Europe’s combined total at that point ($127.90 billion), but still dramatically trailing overall ad spending in the US ($322.11 billion by 2024).
Since 2017, China and India have been the two fastest-growing ad markets, but India will tumble considerably in 2020 given its very challenging pandemic conditions. Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and India will be the worst-performing countries this year, each posting double-digit declines in total ad spend. However, next year, India will reclaim a position in the global top 10 and resume its climb from there, ultimately becoming the seventh-largest market by 2024. India’s sharp 10.2% contraction this year will presage a huge jump once the economic environment normalizes. We forecast India will be the world’s fastest-growing ad market in 2021, with 30.5% growth.