Companies have a vast choice when it comes to communicating. Communication solutions and advertising formats are varied, offering innovation and performance to stand out from the crowd. Yet while advertising remains an extremely dynamic vector of communication worldwide, Europe is experiencing a slight downturn in advertising investment. In fact, IREP, France Pub and Kantar Media, three benchmark organisations, have drawn up a report on advertising investment for the past year, from January to September. The results are indisputable: advertising investment is down sharply, by 3.2% compared with last year.

A significant fall in advertising revenue, particularly for the free press

Although the results for the last quarter of 2017 are not available, the trend is nevertheless very clear. Over the first three quarters of 2017, the media recorded revenues of €5.82 billion, compared with €6.01 billion in 2016. At the end of 2016, these revenues were already down by 0.9%.

Three media nevertheless posted more than satisfactory results. Digital advertising continues to grow, with a 15.5% increase over the first three quarters. Cinema sales are up by 11.7%. Television remains stable, at €2.19 billion, compared with €2.20 billion in 2016, i.e. -0.3% in one year.
The regional weekly press, regional dailies and outdoor advertising fared rather well, with reasonable declines of -3.8% and -3.9% respectively. Radio recorded a drop of -4.2%.

The biggest drop was in the free press (-5% compared with 2016), and in advertising mail, which recorded a significant decline of -7.3%.
The situation is more complicated for national dailies (-9.4%) and the magazine press (-11.1%). In fact, advertisers are including magazines less and less in their media plans. By the end of 2017, magazine advertising is expected to have fallen by a substantial 10.2%.

Digital once again makes its mark, with an increase of +10.8%.

Unsurprisingly, the study shows a very clear increase in advertising investment on the internet (display, emailing, etc.), with a rise of +10.8% compared with 2016.

Online advertising is taking pride of place in advertisers’ media plans. The Internet offers the significant advantage of being able to adapt advertising to all its forms and formats, to geolocate, to target, etc… So that you can communicate in the most effective way possible, and above all so that you don’t spend your budget unnecessarily: communication on the Internet is targeted communication, and therefore relevant.

By 2018, online advertising is expected to account for 40% of the global market, rising to 44% by 2020. American players such as Facebook, for example, will have a sizeable slice of the pie.

In short, an overall decline in advertising investment, centred mainly on France. Media agencies are forecasting a 4.3% rise in advertising investment worldwide in 2018.

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