MAM
Carat predicts global ad spend growth at 5% in 2014 & 2015
MUMBAI: Carat, a global media network, published its updated forecasts for worldwide advertising expenditure in 2014 and 2015, with market optimism demonstrated through strong global and regional forecasts.
Based on data received from 59 markets across America, Asia Pacific and EMEA, Carat’s latest forecast shows overall global advertising revenues accelerating by +5.0 per cent in 2014, an increase on the +4.8 per cent predicted in March 2014, and reaffirming positivity for 2015 with year-on-year growth predicted at +5.0 per cent.
From a regional perspective, Carat predicts further positive momentum in 2014 for North America and Western Europe, compared with figures announced in March 2014. The US continues to show strong on-going market growth, with levels of advertising spend in North America expected to exceed the pre-recession peak in 2007 for the first time by the end of 2014. Western Europe is predicted to see a return to positive growth of +2.7 per cent after two consecutive years of declining advertising spend, driven by a strong UK advertising market forecast to grow by a robust +7.5 per cent, this year.
Whilst forecasts show a slight decline in growth when compared with predictions from March 2014, Asia Pacific and Latin America are still both forecast to outperform global predictions, with growth rates for 2014 of +5.4 per cent and 12.1 per cent respectively, and the only regions to see double digit growth in some markets. Carat’s data also highlights that the outlook for 2015 continues to be encouraging with all key markets forecast to return to positive growth.
In media, digital outperforms previous predictions for 2014 with year-on-year growth forecast at +16.1 per cent. Digital will also increase its total share of spend, reaching 20.5 per cent in 2014 and 22.6 per cent next year, when it will outpace the combined Magazines and Newspaper global share for the first time. Whilst the steady decline in print is expected to continue, all other mediums are predicted to achieve year-on-year growths of approximately 3-5 per cent in 2014 and 2015.
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Dentsu Aegis Network CEO Jerry Buhlmann said, “Carat’s latest advertising forecast gives us increased optimism for the outlook of global and regional advertising spend. With the global recession further behind us and a healthy trend of 5 per cent year-on-year global ad growth, there is positive momentum building across the industry.”
He added, “Whilst Digital continues to headline market trend discussions, the components within this dominant media now provide the interesting chapters, with the opportunities in mobile leading the debate. With changes and trends in consumer behaviour driving business opportunities, brands need to deliver innovative and integrated solutions to reap the rewards ahead.”
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
