In its latest study of global media owner advertising revenues, covering 73 countries, Magna Global forecasts that global ad revenues will grow by 4.8% to $536 billion in 2015.

Some highlights:

1. Ad revenues grew by +5.5% this year, to reach the half-trillion mark ($512 billion). Advertising sales will grow by +4.8% in 2015 to reach $536 billion.
2. In the U.S., the media owners advertising revenues grew by 4.0% in 2014 to $165 billion. This betters the growth rate of 2.4% achieved in the U.S. in 2013. For 2015, Magna Global expects advertising revenues to grow by 2.7%.
3. The non-recurring sports events of 2014 contributed to the global growth of television (5.2%). The FIFA World Cup was a clear positive in some markets like the UK and the US, but it was neutral in Germany and below expectations in Brazil. The Winter Olympics and mid-term elections proved below expectations in the US.
4. TV is expected to grow again in 2015, globally, driven by a positive pricing trend in Europe and parts of Asia (3.0%).
5. Digital media grew strongly again this year (growth of 17.2% to $142 billion) driven by mobile campaigns (growth of 72%) and social formats (growth of 64%). Magna Global forecasts that global digital revenues will reach a 30% market share globally in 2015 (growth of 15.1% to $163billion). Based on their long-term forecasts, Magna Global expects digital media to catch up with television in 2019, when both account for 38% of global advertising revenues. Digital media is likely to surpass TV revenues in the U.S. by as early as 2017. Digital media is already the number one category in the U.K. in addition to 13 of the total 73 markets analysed by Magna Global. These include Australia, Canada, Germany, China, Sweden and the Netherlands.
6. Within digital, paid search is the number-one format with nearly half of all global dollars, followed by display (21%), social (12%) and video (8%). Mobile ad spending is expected to grow rapidly and is likely to reach a third of total digital revenues by 2016.
7. Newspaper ad sales decreased 4.3% in 2014 while magazine revenues declined by 7.3%. Radio remained flat while out-of-home media grew 3.4%.
8. Compared to their last global update in June, Magna Global increased the growth expectation for North America from 2.5% to 2.8%), for Western Europe from 2.5% to 2.8%) and for Latin America from 11.5% to 12.9%). On the other hand, they reduced their forecast for Asia Pacific from 6.9% to 6.4% and for Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) from 6.4% to 3.0%.
9. Looking at individual markets, some of the most significant revisions in their 2015 forecasts are among BRIC markets. China and Brazil advertising revenues are still predicted to grow by a decent amount (8.6% and 5.9% respectively). Russia is the single biggest negative revision due to the combination of declining energy prices and the partial withdrawal of Western investors amidst geopolitical tensions; the 2015 advertising growth forecast is cut from 7.0% to 0.8%. India is likely to be the most dynamic among the four BRICs, with an expected ad spend growth of 13.3% following a similar pace in 2014 (13.2%). The biggest upwards 2015 revisions come from Indonesia (from 13% to 17%) and Argentina (22% to 36%) and the most significant among top 10 markets comes from the UK (from 3% to 4.7%).
10. The Indian advertising market showed strong growth this year (13.2%) following two lacklustre years (2012: 4.6%, 2013: 8.0%). The general elections that took place in the first part of the year generated massive incremental spends. The outcome of the election, bringing a new BJP-led Government to power, improved business and consumer confidence, which prompted Magna Global to increase their 2015 ad growth forecast to 13.3.

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