In the advertising industry, two BRIC countries, China and Brazil, are listed amongst the world’s largest ad markets. China, the largest ad market in the BRIC group, particularly stands out, taking the position of second largest ad market in the world. China shows a notable upward trend in ad spending which is expected to reach 86.6 billion U.S. dollars by 2017. Brazil, listed as the ninth largest ad market in the world, is forecast to increase its ad spending from an estimate of 20.45 billion U.S. dollars in 2015 to nearly 30 billion U.S. dollars by 2019. Russia and India have more moderate projections for the coming years. Russia’s ad spend is expected to grow from about 10 billion U.S. dollars in 2014 to nearly 13 billion U.S. dollars by 2018, whereas the Indian ad spending is projected to increased from 6.3 billion U.S. dollars to just over 8.1 billion U.S. dollars during the same time frame.
Despite the growing economies and modernization of the BRIC countries, as of 2015, television still remains the main medium for advertisers in these four countries. Television was estimated to account for about 55.8 percent of the total ad expenditure in China in 2015, and an estimate of 49 percent of the ad expenditure in Russia during the same year. Terrestrial TV held 55 percent of the ad market in Brazil in 2015, while TV accounted for 10 percent of it. Lastly, television was projected to account for 37.8 percent of India’s total advertising expenditure in 2016 already. Newspapers maintain a significant present in India and Brazil as the second most popular medium for advertisers in these two countries. Digital was projected to become the second largest ad medium in both China and Russia in 2015 already.
China also takes the lead in the digital ad market with the highest digital advertising revenue amongst the four countries. In 2015, revenue of five main digital ad formats in China – banner, video, search, social media and classifieds – amounted to about 32.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2015 already. Digital advertising spending in Brazil reached an estimate of three billion U.S. dollars that year, while Russia spent about 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in digital advertising during the same time frame. India’s digital advertising spending stood at an estimate of 569 million U.S. dollars in 2015, the lowest figure among BRIC countries that year. Mobile is a promising platform for these countries, as the global advertising industry and leading markets have been constantly shifting towards it.
