Industry revenue of “advertising“ in South Africa 2011-2023

The South African advertising industry is projected to grow from 1.35 billion U.S. dollars in 2011 to 3.24 billion U.S. dollars by 2023, owing to factors such as the growing number of advertising agencies, increased advertising spend by enterprises and the growth in digital and mobile advertising. Although TV and video was the largest medium in 2019, internet advertising is expected to account for the major share in the medium term, owing to growing internet penetration and the increasing number of mobile internet users. In fact, mobile advertising revenue is projected to grow over two-fold between 2018-2023.

In terms of ad spend, Shoprite Holdings is the highest spender, with a total spend of nearly 1.48 billion South African rand in 2017-18. Clientele Life, followed by Unilever South Africa, Outsurance Insurance and Coca Cola South Africa follow suit respectively.

The Omnicom media group is the leading advertising agency, having garnered 582 million U.S. dollars in 2017, followed by the Media shop and Mindshare.

Advertising industry likely to experience recession in the short term

Industry experts predict that a recession in the advertising sector is highly probable as enterprises all over the world are reducing their ad spend and postponing ad campaigns, owing to Covid-19. According to data from the World Federation of Advertisers, nearly 81 percent of large advertisers are deferring planned ad campaigns, including Coca Cola, Unilever, Visa and Airbnb.