Olympics help boost Chinese ad budgets

Over the next year, online and mobile will drive rapid growth in China’s advertising budgets, according to recent forecasts from GroupM.

by Helen Leggatt

China now has the world’s largest Internet community with over 250 million users. That figure represents a 55% increase in the year from June, 2007, or an additional 90 million users.

A report entitled “This Year, Next Year: China”, from WPP’s GroupM, forecasts ad spend is set to rise, too, with a 20% rise forecast from 2007 to 2008.

The Internet and television were found to be the channels to attract the biggest rise in budgets. The internet, China’s fastest-growing medium, is expected to attract a little over 7% of adspend in 2008, rising to 8.5% in 2009.

“The China media market will continue to be among the most exciting and challenging in the world. Due to its size and diversity, China is no longer seen by marketers as a single market, but a collection of evolving, complex and differing markets," said (.pdf) Sara Si, General Manager, GroupM Knowledge Center, China.

"Advertiser options multiply correspondingly, especially in digital, events, sponsorship and other branded content opportunities, all offering new ways to reach and engage with consumers. This may come as a surprise to those who might not normally associate choice with China.”

The Beijing Olympics is sure to be a factor in the increased ad spend, with GroupM’s futures director speculating that while growth in media investment was “relatively restrained” in 2007, “we predict many marketers are conserving funds for the anticipated Olympic bonanza this year."