The World Advertising Research Center (WARC) reports that South Africa’s advertising market is expected to grow by 6% this year. WARC points out unique factors impacting the said growth in SA’s ad market, amid surge in global ad investment sector.
SA’s Ad Market Grows Amid Global Ad Investment Surge
WARC predicts that SA’s ad market will see more investments from local and international sources to grow by 6% this year. However, the body notes that this surge in ad investment translates to a 1.1% increase when tracked in dollars due to a weak rand/dollar rate based on historical measures.
Per the leading causes behind the projected ad market growth, WARC identifies the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in advertising campaigns as a predominant factor. Meanwhile, WARC’s report coincides with an unconnected research from Google Data Trends on South Africa’s online behavior.
Google Data Trends identified a remarkably growing curiosity among South Africans about AI. According to the Google Report, AI-themed online searches among South Africans increased by 120% in a Year-over-Year increase over the first half of the year. Furthermore, Google reported that more South Africans are interested in “how to use AI” alongside “AI jobs” and “AI course(s).”
Global Ad Market Nearly Tripled, WARC Says
The recent study also discovered that global ad investment has nearly tripled over the last decade. The global advertising sector has grown by 2.8 more times than the global economic output since 2014.
WARC also discovered that global advertising spending is set to grow to a total of $1.07 trillion – its best performance in six years, disregarding the post-COVID recovery the sector witnessed in 2021 (a 27.9% year-on-year increase).
On a global scale, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta account for over 70% of the decade-long incremental ad spend, according to James McDonald, director of Data, Intelligence, and Forecasting, WARC, and research author.
In the short-term future, WARC forecasts a global ad spend growth of 7.2% next year and 7% in 2026, adding up to a global ad market worth $1.23 trn.
