‘India headed for major recovery in ad spends’

India is expected to see a ‘major recovery’ in advertisement expenditure in 2021 following the slump the sector saw last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its report, ‘This Year, Next Year’ 2021, GroupM predicted that India’s advertising investment would reach an estimated ₹80,123 crore this year. This represents a growth of 23.2%, for the calendar year 2021.

India is the second-fastest growing market among the top 10 and will be the sixth-largest contributor to incremental ad spends in 2021 globally. In 2020, “the pandemic affected media investments,” said Prasanth Kumar, CEO, GroupM South Asia. “However, we have [seen] month-on-month upturn starting Q3 last year and are optimistic about the revival.” Digital was the only medium to witness a gain of $27 billion globally in 2020.