Spanish advertising slow to return to pre-crisis levels
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Juan Fernandez Gonzalez
| 15 February 2018
| 15 February 2018

Advertising investment continues to grow in Spain, driven by digital media and TV, but are far below the market highs of 2007.

In 2017, for the fourth year in a row, Spanish advertisers increased their expenditure, according to the data from Arce Media’s i2p report. Last year ended with a total €4.49 billion spent on ad campaigns across every platform, 2% more than in 2016.

The figure shows consistent growth since the market reached its lowest point in 2013, with €3.7 billion spent. However, the figures are far from the €7.36 billion invested in 2007, the year before the financial crisis.

In addition, the gap between traditional and digital media is still huge. Only TV has managed to continue to garner significant investment.

Advertisers are spending more and more on digital media, but the total is almost a fifth of that spent on traditional platforms. While digital drew €841 million in advertising during 2017, traditional media invoiced €3.65 billion.

Of those €3.65 billion, nearly 60% was spent on free-to-air (FTA) and pay-TV, as linear TV continues being the greatest ad-related revenue generator of the Spanish media market.

“Forecasts for 2018 show moderate growth, nearing 2.1%, if the current financial conditions don’t change,” said the report. “Total ad investment for 2018 will near €4.6 billion.”