By 2023, digital advertising will account for 54% of all telecoms AdSpends: Zenith Report

Zenith Report 2021 forecasts India and Russia as the fastest-growing markets for Telecom AdSpends with a focus on digital.

According to Zenith Business Intelligence Telecommunications Report, telecom AdSpends will grow at an average rate of 4.5% a year to 2023 as its recovers from an 8.7% decline in 2020. Further, Telecoms adspend in the 12 key markets* included in the report will rise from US$17.8bn in 2020 to US$18.7bn in 2021, and then return to its pre-pandemic level of US$19.5bn in 2022.

Smartphone sales will start to spring back this year once consumers feel more confident in their future. Consumers are becoming more willing to finance and purchase handsets independently from their network providers, giving manufacturers and retailers a greater incentive to advertise handsets themselves. Meanwhile, the networks will seek to recoup their investment in 5G licences and infrastructure through new services and more expensive data packages.

All these trends will help fuel healthy growth in telecoms advertising over the next three years. Zenith predicts telecoms adspend will grow 4.7% in 2021, 4.4% in 2022 and 4.3% in 2023. Further trends include:

Digital Platforms to Help Telecom Brands in Demonstrating Relevance to Exacting Consumers

Voice and data services are commoditized and functionally indistinguishable to consumers, who expect them to work flawlessly in the background and only pay attention to them when they go wrong. High-impact advertising in mass-audience media like television and radio allows telecoms companies to differentiate themselves from others through branding and makes them more relevant to consumers by promoting their association with things consumers are passionate about, such as entertainment, sport, and music.

Telecoms brands, therefore, spend substantially more on television and radio advertising than the average brand. In 2020, they spent 42% of their budgets on television and radio, while the average brands spent 30%.

But as audiences migrate online, telecoms companies are refocusing on communicating their brand narratives to mass digital audiences. Telecoms brands spend less on digital media than average - 49% of their budgets went to digital channels in 2020, compared to 56% for the average advertiser, but digital advertising is also the only channel in which telecoms adspend is increasing.

Zenith forecasts that telecoms brands will increase their digital adspend at an average rate of 5% a year between 2019 and 2023. By 2023, digital advertising will account for 54% of all telecoms advertising.

"COVID-19 has demonstrated how dependent we are on good, fast, and reliable internet connections. Telecoms companies have been the unsung heroes of the pandemic, shifting our lives online and keeping us connected to entertainment, work, and commerce,” said, Ben Lukawski, Global Chief Strategy Officer, Zenith. “Their challenge is to go from being unsung to being acknowledged and appreciated for their efforts. The spread of 5G and the reality of our new-found virtual lives give telecom brands the opportunity to move into the limelight", he added.

Telecoms brands are cutting back their spending on traditional television and radio as their reach declines, but less rapidly than brands in most other categories. Zenith forecasts that between 2019 and 2023, telecoms brands will reduce their television ad spend by an average of 2.0% a year, compared to a 3.5% annual reduction across all categories. They will also reduce their radio ad spend by 2.8% a year, compared to 4.1% a year for the market as a whole.

Also read: Report: Agility & customer empathy big business priorities in 2021

India and Russia to Lead Telecoms Adspend Growth

Zenith forecasts that India will be the fastest-growing market for telecoms advertising between 2020 and 2023 by some distance, with 11% annual growth. According to eMarketer, only 31% of the population currently has a smartphone, but thanks to the launch of low-price handsets such as the JioPhone, this proportion is rising rapidly.

“The telecom sector in India in 2021 is anticipating a robust growth on the basis of an increase in tariff pricing, demand for data, a growing number of mobile users, and hopefully the launch of 5G in the last quarter. This will lead to a substantial increase in media investments by the key players especially on Television & Digital”, said, Jai Lala, COO, Zenith India.

Russia is another market with relatively low (57%) but fast-growing smartphone penetration, and here telecoms ad spend is forecast to rise rapidly too, by 8% a year.

Most of the other markets in this report are forecast to grow by between 3% and 6% a year to 2023. The exception will be France, not because of any inherent weakness in demand, but unlike those in most markets, French telecoms brands actually increased spending in 2020 by 6% in response to the extra demand for data. The basis of comparison with 2023 is therefore considerably tougher.

“The rollout of 5G services will allow mobile operators to supply bundled voice, data, and entertainment services to the home and compete directly with landline broadband,” said, Jonathan Barnard, Head of Forecast, Zenith. “This will spur greater competition to put together the most attractive services at the best prices and help stimulate a sustained recovery in telecoms ad spend to at least 2023.”

*The 12 markets included in this report are Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the US, which between them account for 73% of total global ad spend. Telecoms are defined as services and equipment facilitating the transmission of voice calls and data by landlines and mobile networks.