The Mainichi Daily News reports that Ad spending in Japan has dropped for the first time in 5 years.
“Advertising spending was down 4.7 percent in 2008 from the year earlier, the first drop in five years, according to estimates released by advertising giant Dentsu.
Print media showed the biggest decrease since the figures first came out in 1947, with TV, radio, newspapers and magazines taking less than half the market share with 49.3 percent for the first time. Other media, including newspaper pullouts and billboards, also showed a decrease.”
As I’ve reported in a past blog entry, we’re seeing a drastic drop in ad spending in traditional ad channels, due mostly to the economic downturn. But what about online ad spending?
“However, Internet advertising proved still healthy, taking more than a 10 percent share for the first time (10.4 percent).”
Newspapers showed the biggest drop, decreasing 12.5 percent to 827.6 billion yen. Magazine advertising spending was down 11.1 percent to 407.8 billion yen, radio down 7.3 percent to 154.9 billion yen and TV dropping 4.4 percent to 1.9 trillion yen. The ad spending cutbacks will prove to be a bonanza for many online media channels. I suspect mobile portals stand to benefit the most due partly to the pervasiveness of mobile devices in Japan and the increasing popularity of mobile based SNS.
February 26, 2009 at 7:20 am |
When the article says that internet advertising is over 10% share for the first time ever, but with no numbers on whether that’s because online advertising is growing or because the other types of advertising are falling faster than it is, the data isn’t very useful.
Also, it’s hard to agree with the author that a massive decline in advertising spending will be a “bonanza” for anyone. Online advertising will likely suffer one way or another if less people are buying ads.
February 26, 2009 at 7:48 am |
Yes, it is difficult to tell if the 10% share for online ads is due to the drop in traditional ad spending. But I disagree with you thinking that a decline in print, TV and radio ads will adversely affect online ads. Search ads in Japan are on course to top 36% of all web based online ad spending. 40% for mobile. And this does not include affiliate marketing ads and other online media channels. Japanese businesses are not about to stop all advertising. They are just getting smarter and demanding more return for their ad spend. Where else but via online/mobile channels can they find this kind of accountability? So yes, maybe a massive decline will happen overall, but at least the mobile/web segment of the industry will see an increase.