October 25, 2005 | posted by Michael Baxter in Uncategorized |

How can this be? In 2005, Brazil, Russia, China and India are collectively expected to contribute 16% of the world’s growth in GDP, and yet they will account for 27% of the global growth in advertising expenditure. Or so says a new report from ZenithOptimedia.

According to the report, global advertising will jump 5.2% this year to a total value of $406,257mn followed by a 6.2% rise next and 6.1% the year after.

Not surprisingly the Internet is expected to account for a large part of the growth - with its share of the global advertising cake increasing from 3.2% in 2003, to 4.3% this year to 5% in 2007.

As for why advertising growth is outstripping GDP growth in the key emerging markets - maybe it’s similar to the reason advertising aimed at the young is so popular. Companies realise that consumers from the emerging counties will become more and more important to business as their respective economies grow - and so the plan is to reel them in now - build up brand loyalty today, while these potential customers are still new to the consumer society scene and presumably relatively impressionable.