Advertising market coasting toward gains

The ongoing novel coronavirus epidemic will accelerate centralization and reshuffling of the advertising market to promote creativity-driven and results-oriented marketing, experts said.

Most advertisers postponed marketing events or cut budgets due to declines in domestic consumption and operational delays amid the outbreak. The annual marketing outlay among advertisers may have shrunk by between one-third and a half, which will lower the overall output value of the sector this year, said Ding Junjie, dean of the National Institute of Advertising at the Communication University of China.

Investment in online advertising decreased by 11.5 percent during Jan 13-Feb 9 period, compared with the Jan 21-Feb 17 stretch last year－the periods around Spring Festival－according to an iResearch report in early March. Ad investment in the transportation, retail, entertainment and communications service sectors dropped by over 40 percent, it showed.