Ad spending in China finally returns to black after two years in decline: the total spending expands by 4.3% from 2016.

The total rate card ad spending in China in 2017 increased by 4.3% from a year ago, ending a two-year decline, according to the latest annual data from Media Intelligence, CTR. Traditional media contributed significantly to the rebound.

Among all traditional media formats, TV reversed its decline in 2016 (-3.7%) to grow 1.7% in 2017 and again was able to contribute to the net growth of total ad spending.

Looking into the details of TV ad spending, we can see that the nationwide air time of TV commercials was still decreasing: after shrinking by 4.4% in 2016 from the previous year, in 2017 it lost a further 4.5%. But the rate card income for TV ad spending reversed to a 1.7% growth, while it was a decrease of 3.7% in 2016.

The performance of channels under China Central TV Station outgrew all other levels of TV channels by a large margin: it grew 31.8%, while those for provincial satellite TV stations and ground stations were almost flat. The total air time of TV commercials on CCTV channels also grew significantly.

Ad spending on radio channels bottomed out after 2015. In 2017, it grew by 6.95% from a year ago. Newspapers and magazines, however, were still in steep downfall: ad spending in newspapers lost 32.5% while magazines lost 18.9%.

In emerging new media formats, the ad spending on screen in lifts and poster in lifts continued to grow stably. As the once high-flying cinema box revenue growth in China evaporated in 2017, the ad spending in cinema pre-roll ads also slowed down, but still in quite remarkable rate compared with other media formats.

From the advertisers dimension, the top 20 biggest ad buying companies accounted for 20.6% of all ad spending. Among them, P&G continued to rank No.1 even though its spending was down by 18.4%. Hongmao Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, which boosted its spending by 51.3%, ranked second. Coca Cola also increased its ad spending by 27.3% to rank third. Find out more here.

China short-video platform users overview Q3 2017; MAU reached 244M

This article was originally published on Kantar.com

Radio is the only increasing media of the traditional media with a growth by 9.2% YoY. Television, newspapers, magazines, traditional outdoor and traffic video fell by 3.6%, 30.5%, 23.4%, 2.7% and 16.7% YoY respectively.

Advertising market share is being diverted by new media. Elevators televisions and posters, cinemas videos and Internet increased by 18.9%, 10%, 19% and 14.5% YoY and the new media also made the main contribution to the growth of the whole market.

Traditional advertising market fell 4.1% YoY in H1 2017, and the decline in traditional media is clearly stabilized. In the traditional media, the concentration ratio of the top 20 brands has gradually increased, and the market influence of the local brands has expanded.

45% consumers prefer to watch videos to get new luxury products information, 27% prefer to watch products photo gallery, and 14% prefer articles or special visits to know products according to the latest research of Mintel.

With increasing luxury brand awareness in more China’s urban areas, channels for consumers to get knowledge of luxury products become more comprehensive. 51% female consumers between 20 and 24 years old and 46% middle-income groups (family monthly income between US$2,468.56 to US$3,085.55) are more likely to become aware of luxury brands on fashion magazines.

Traditional media such as magazines and newspapers are still very effective channels for luxuries marketing, especially for apparel, accessories and shoes. Video websites which can best reflect the brand value and introduce new products are the most popular channel of consumers. Male consumers have a higher acceptance level for digital marketing methods.

Customized luxury products also drive the development of the luxury industry in China. 43% respondents believed that customized products, such as custom made handbags colors, are a great innovative marketing method and 41% prefer designs of combination of colors with Chinese culture according to Mintel. Other 31% prefer the marketing method integrating art and music.

Clothing (55%), fashionable accessories and watches (42%), jewelry (50%) are the most popular luxury products. Male (32%) have a higher enthusiasm towards food and beverage luxury consumption than female consumers (26%). On the purchase of the electronic equipment, men’s purchase intention (39%) also remains high than the female (19%).

Experiential luxury products have gradually become popular in China, including health, culture, leisure and high-end travel products. 58% respondents show they plan to buy luxury goods or experiential luxuries in a short period. 28% will buy catering luxuries and 22% are willing to pay for cultural and leisure luxury activities. 21% urban consumers in China are interested in experimental luxury buying.

Also read: China Overall Advertising Insights Q3 2015

Advertising spend can reflect changes in the economic structure of China. Real estate ad spends decreased by 26.2% year on year and fell down to 28.6% in the first three-quarters this year compared to the same period last year according to CTR.

Related: China social media trend 2015

Following Chinese government’s promotion of “internet plus” strategy, online advertising market in China reached a growth rate of 94.7% as of 30 September this year. Taobao invested 1.3 times more in advertising from January to September 2015 compared to the same period last year, Suning 1.1 times, and Vipshop even 10 times.

China’s traditional advertising spends have declined in recent years by and large while it declined 7.3% as of 30 September this year out of expectation. The traditional advertising market in the third quarter decreased 10.1% compared to the previous quarter which reached a record low.

Print media newspaper and magazines advertising spends in this industry also decreased sharply with a growth rate of -34.5% and -18.5% respectively as of Q3 2015 compared to the same period last year. Advertising spend on TV and radio also declined while only the outdoor increased by 0.6%.

Beverage, cosmetics, foods, medicine, and business and service focused on TV advertising in the first three-quarter this year. However, the overall spends on TV advertising declined compared to the same period last year. Cosmetics decreased by 23.5% and business and service dropped by 13.7%. Medicine increased by 23.7% on TV advertising revenues.

Similarly with TV advertising, the overall radio advertising market also declined, among which real estate industry spend decreased by 8.5% in the first three-quarters of 2015 compared to spends in the same period last year.

Newspaper and magazine advertising has suffered a great hit. Even among the top 5 advertising sectors, advertising spends decreased to a large extent this year compared to the same period last year.

Compared to the large advertising revenues on the outdoor last year, the real estate industry was more prudent with only 5% increase in advertising in the first three-quarters this year. In general, the outdoor advertising market maintained a relatively good momentum this year.

Building video advertising, which mainly referred to the advertising on large LCD screens outside the building and on the TV inside the elevators, increased by 15.2% in revenues this year compared to the same period last year. Beverage, cosmetics and transportation industry declined in advertising spend while telecommunication and computer increased dramatically.

Chinese tended to spend more money on entertainment thus cinema video advertising gained the attention of the entrepreneurs. The overall cinema video advertising market grew by 56.2% among which the telecommunication industry increased by 107% YoY in the first three-quarters this year.

Video advertising on buses, trains, subways and such increased by 8.9% as of 30 September this year. With transit advertising costs increasing, some sectors reduced spend such as as entertainment, foods and events. In contrast, business and service sector sspent 19.5% more on transit video advertising in the first three-quarters this year.

Online advertising market gained a wide-range blossom with a growth rate of 94.7%. Finance industry with a growth rate of 57.4% YoY was the fifth-largest online advertising sector and the telecommunications was the largest. Jingdong, Taobao, Mogujie, Suning, Kaola and other e-commerce companies have invested heavily on online advertising.

Also read: China Advertising Insights 2015

In Q3 2014, newspaper ads accounted for nearly 70% of total ads in China tourism industry according to research of Meihua. info. The online ads’ market share increased to 16.2%, following newspaper ads in China tourism industry. Compared with the same period from 2013, newspaper ads placement had sharp decrease in Q3 2014.

Since 2011, ads placement in tourism industry had stable growth in China. Online ads placement realized rapid growth since Q3 2012 and it increased by 70.1% year on year in Q3 2014.

Influenced by overall economy status in China, the growth of China online advertising market slowed in Q3 according to data from iResearch. In Q3 2014, total transaction value of China online advertising market was RMB42.22 billion ($6.87 billion).

In Q3 2014, newspaper ads placement accounted for 65.7% of total ads in China tourism industry, followed by online ads (19.7%), outdoor ads (11.4%) and magazine ads (3.2%).

In China tourism industry, online ads for branding accounted for 55.2% and the placement had an increase of 128.9% QoQ. While the market share of online ads for event promoting decreased from 45.8% to 34.2% Q0Q.

The most popular online ads for advertisers in China tourism industry was the horizontal banner ad, which represented 27.2% of total online ads in China tourism industry in Q3 2014, followed by pre-rool ads and square large-sized ads.

The total online ads placement of top 10 brands in China tourism industry accounted for 58.9% in Q3 2014. Caissa and InterContinental Group had increase of 4741.2% and 525.5% respectively year on year.

In Q3 2014, China online tourism ads placement on travel websites had a decrease of 34.4% from the same period of last year. The online ads placement rapid increase on Weibo and client-side added limited strength in China online advertising market in Q3.

The travel agencies for inbound and outbound tourism remained the top spenders in Q3 2014 in China.

In Q3 2014, magazine ads in hotel resort ranked top by ads placement and total spend, followed by airlines and travel agencies for outbound tourism.

In Q3 2014, the most popular magazine advertising media for advertisers in China tourism industry was English & free magazine, representing 27.1%, followed by sports magazine (24.2%) and fashion & clothing website.

Platform ads was much popular in outdoor ads for advertisers in China tourism industry in Q3 2014. Meihua. info believed that platforms are the place where many people would stay for a while and they can attract young people like students and tourists.

The placement of outdoor ads was 3,190 in Q3 2014 in China with an increase of 62.4% year on year. Outdoor ads in China involved 20 cities, 37 media and 285 brands(products) in Q3.

Also read：Chinese Traditional Brand Advertisers Favor Mobile Advertising

In Q2 2014, China total print advertising spend was about RMB14 billion ($2.28 billion), a decrease of 11.4% from the same period in 2013 according to Print Ads Report in Q2 2014 published by Meihua.info.

In Q2 2014, the number of total print advertisers was 19,884 with a decrease of 14.6% from same period of 2013. Total print ads placement and total print ad spend both had YoY decrease of 14.6% and 11.4% respectively.

Total newspaper ads spend exceeded RMB10.3 billion ($1.67 billion) with a YoY decrease of 13.7% while the number of ads placement was 132,882 with a decrease of 14.4% YoY. In June 2014, total ad placement had a little increase from May 2014 while total spend still had obvious decrease of 18.1%.

China top 5 industries by newspaper ad spend are real estate, retail& service, cultural entertainment, automobile and education & other public service. The total spend accounted for 80.3% of total newspaper advertising market.

In Q2 2014, total  China magazine ads spend was about RMB4.14 billion ($674.2 million), with a decrease of 4.7% YoY . The number of ad placement increased to 15,351 with a decrease of 16.2% YoY . It is estimated that magazine ad placement in Q3 would have stable development with similar QoQ growth rate.

China top 5 industries by magazine ad spend includes cosmetics & bath products, personal care, automobile, apparel and cultural entertainment. The total spend accounted for 72.1% of total magazine advertising market.

Among the top 5 industries, ad spend of cosmetics & bath products accounted for 19.74% in Q2 2014 with a YoY decrease of 4.2%. Personal care and cultural entertainment both had YoY growth of 6.8% and 0.6% respectively.

Fashion magazines featured with apparel and hairdressing elements attract the young group and so they still show great power in magazine advertising market. In Q2 2014, Chinese advertisers’ spend on such kind of magazine accounted for 53.9% of total spend with a YoY decrease of 2.0%.

Find out China Advertising Spend Overview in July 2014