Despite the positive economic situation in Germany, companies increased their spendings in the above the line media cautiously by only 0.5% to a total of 9.8 billion Euros from January – April 2018 compared to the same period last year. Advertising investments were reduced or shifted to channels not measured by Nielsen, like content marketing, social media or search.
Mobile remains the strongest growing medium with +62.80% (273 million Euros). TV continues to be the leading medium with 4.7 billion Euros spent (+0.14%). Consumer magazines and trade magazines see losses (-3.65% resp. -7.91%), newspapers have experienced a plus of 2.76%. Radio spend increased by 1.34%. Cinema reduced its investments (-5.79%). Internet (desktop) showed a decline of 7% (Nielsen Media Research).
Forecast 2018-2020
According to Zenith in March, the German advertising market would grow by 2.3% in 2018. They estimate the online share in total advertising investments to rise to 36.1% this year and to be at 40% in 2020.
Dentsu Aegis Network in its latest forecast project German media spend to increase by 2.6% this year (2017: +2.2%). For 2019, they expect a plus of 3%. The digital media would position themselves as number one with a share of 36.3% in the total expenditures and are to surpass TV in 2018. The growth drivers of the digital media are expected to be mobile and social media with particularly high growth rates (+38.2% resp. +22%).
Regarding digital advertising (online and mobile) in Germany, the association of online marketers OVK forecast net investments to grow by 10% this year (2017: +8%) to a record sum of 2.12 billion Euros.