Advertising booms up despite rising prices

The advertising market in Russia is posting very strong numbers. Despite rising prices, it continues to scale new heights.

It has long been said that advertising is a mirror of the economy. If a country’s GDP is growing it will be reflected in the next year’s advertising figures. In Russia, salaries and consumer spending are growing every year and so is advertising.

Television, which accounts for half of the market, leads the way. It grew by more than 24% over the first six months compared to the previous year and advertising volume reached $US 2 BLN.

“We expect overall growth of about 30% for 2007. We expect the TV advertising market to reach about $US 4 BLN or about a half of the total Russian advertising market,” stated Elena Rogovina , analyst at UBS Moscow.

Radio and media advertising also posted strong numbers growing by 23% and 21% respectively.

Outdoor advertising grew 16% despite suffering a major blow due to a ban on cigarette advertising.

“Despite losing cigarette companies’ outdoor advertising we were able to cope with the last substantial inflow and outdoor advertising has shown steady 60% growth. It is because the number of outdoor advertising sites is increasing. Maybe it is a slower growth, but it is still at 11% now,” said Andrey Berezkin, the president of Acar Outdoor Advertizing.

Other advertisers took over from the banned cigarette companies, namely beer producers, mobile operators, retailers, banks and financial services. Outdoor advertising, with its 180,000 sites, represents 18% of the market.

But the biggest jump was in Internet advertising. Although it accounts for just 2% of the market it grew by 52%.