Marketing services growth outstrips advertising

by Joe Lepper, brandrepublic.com, Monday, 04 December 2006, 12:00pm,

LONDON - Marketing services including direct marketing, PR, sponsorship and market research are set to grow at a faster rate than advertising this year, according to the latest report on global media and marketing activity from WPP's GroupM.

The report forecasts global advertising growth of 5.3% this year and 5% next year, but says the biggest hike will be for marketing services, which are set to grow by 6.2% in 2006 and 6.4% during 2007.

The report also says that the Chinese market is now the largest single contributor to advertising growth, overtaking the US for the first time, with GroupM predicting that China's major media investment will rise $4.2bn, compared with $4bn for the US.

A key factor in the growth is online advertising activity, which is set to grow by 27% this year and 28% in 2007. This corresponds with another report on global adspend released today by ZenithOptimedia.

The ZenithOptimedia report predicts that online activity is set to increase its share from 5.8% during 2006 to 8.6% in 2009, when it will for the first time outstrip radio advertising globally.

The GroupM report, called 'This Year Next Year Worldwide', said that television is still the world's largest advertising medium, accounting for around half of all media investment, despite increasing audience fragmentation.

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This article was first published on brandrepublic.com