This will put the region just slightly above the 5.7% growth rate Magna is predicting globally in 2020. But it will also put the region behind Magna's ad spend growth predictions for North America (+6.5%) and Latin America (+6.1%) next year. The global driver remains digital ads (+15%) albeit at a slower pace than the phenomenal rates seen over the past four years, Magna said, and will still rely on popular formats like search and social media to fuel ad spend next year.

Meanwhile, the US-China trade war has had an impact on global ad spend and will continue to do so, Magna's report authors said.

“Ironically, while the US and Chinese economies remain strong so far, despite the trade war, and marketing spend grew strongly in both markets this year, the trade war made collateral casualties in several countries depending on US or China trade, and marketing spending was hit," said Vincent Létang, EVP, Global Market Intelligence at Magna.

Létang predicts the global economic slowdown expected in 2020 will be mitigated by the return of cyclical events (including record political spending in the US), strong tech and entertainment marketing (products and services) and the transfer of marketing budgets from brick-and-mortar retail to ecommerce product search.

APAC Highlights

The Indian sub-continent is the least developed sub-region in APAC but that is where advertising is growing fastest in recent years: Pakistan (+15% in 2019), Sri Lanka (+14%), and India (now among the ten largest ad market globally, growing by +13% in 2019). 

The weakest market performance of 2019 came from Singapore (-3%), Malaysia (-1%), and Vietnam (flat). Television advertising sales shrank by -1.3% in 2019 to reach USD 57 billion, decreasing for the first time since 2009. Viewing continues to erode, especially in the more mature markets like Australia.

(Courtesy Campaign)