In order to assess the advertising market during the year 2021, the unified barometer of the advertising market (bump) called on three experts in the sector: France Pub, IREP and Kantar. The report focuses on how advertisers have tried to bounce back from 2020, which saw an unprecedented decline in all advertising segments. What levers have been used by advertising players to catch up and try to return to the same level as in 2019?
The advertising and communication market is on the rise again after a difficult 2020
Unlike 2020, a year marked by the start of the Covid-19 crisis and which had seen all sectors affected, 2021 is synonymous with an increase. Net advertising revenue from all media amounted to 16 billion eurosan increase of 18.3% compared to 2020.
Net investments for the five main media (TV, cinema, radio, press, digital advertising) over the last three years. Screenshot: IREP.
9 out of 10 French people live in the digital age, in France
In terms of television, cinema, radio, press and digital advertising (more commonly known as the scope of the 5 media), this increase is 16.4% for net advertising revenue of 7.174 billion euros. euros. However, this jump does not allow us to return to the level of the results of 2019, with a drop of 5.3%.
All media (except telephone directories) saw their figures start to rise again compared to 2021. The media with the strongest acceleration is television, even surpassing the results of 2019 with an increase in revenue of 4.3%. The other media are closing the gap they had widened in 2019 without reaching the same level.
As for the communication market, it is growing by 17% for a total of 31 billion euros in 2021, which makes it possible to make up for half of the losses incurred in 2020.
With the rebound in 2021, net profits returned to the same level as in January 2020. We note areas of decline in activity in April 2020, November 2020 and April 2021, corresponding to three confinements and the various restrictive measures experienced by the French. Screenshot: IREP.
Focus on the digital advertising market and advertising pressure
The only “winner” of 2020, the digital advertising market, confirmed its dynamism and saw its revenues increase by more than 20% (compared to only 0.5% the previous year).
All digital advertising sectors are on the rise in 2021, as in 2019 and 2020. Source: SRI-UDECAM epub observatory
Television, radio and the written press do not hesitate to turn to digital advertising: 573 million euros in net income were generated by these three media, which corresponds to an increase of 44.1% compared to to 2020. The Digital Out-Of-Home (DOOH) market, which includes all screens broadcasting advertising that can be found outside, is also booming with an increase of 35% (compared to only 16.4% last year).
Of the 64,882 advertisers with a monthly budget of more than 2,500 euros, 68% of them turn exclusively to digital, while only 7% of them deploy on three different channels. This result has been consistent for two years now.
The explosion of DOOH, among other things, makes digital advertising an attractive channel for CSR (corporate social and societal responsibility) campaigns. These campaigns are generally based on seven generic principles: respect for human rights, international standards of behavior, the principle of secularism, the interests of stakeholders, but also transparency, ethical behavior and the responsibility to report. account of his actions.
Many companies try to focus their campaigns on CSR and use their advertising pressure, namely the frequency with which advertising messages can be encountered in a given environment. In France, Lidl is the leading advertiser with 30% additional advertising pressure compared to 2020. The strongest increase is for Amazon with +55% advertising pressure. It should be noted that despite this positive figure, the GAFAs are below the average, devoting only 6% of their advertising pressure against 17% for the CAC 40 companies.
What about advertisers’ advertising investments?
The retail, consumer goods and household equipment sectors were the markets that drove the advertising world the most in 2021. Despite an increase in each of these sectors between 2020 and 2021 and an average increase of 17%, this does not make it possible to completely make up for the delay incurred in 2020 (-8.3%).
Review of the sectors mainly carrying the advertising market over the past three years (industry, mass distribution, consumption, banks, insurance). Screenshot: France Pub.
Several families of advertisers, however, took advantage of the health crisis. This is the case for the household appliances, office automation, IT, mail order and services (banking, insurance, etc.) sectors. With this very stable year 2021, these markets also carried the advertising market. Others have nevertheless been greatly impacted by the crisis: travel, tourism, culture, leisure, transport, in short, all sectors which have also been impacted by Covid-19 itself.
As explained above, advertisers tend to turn to digital: the transfer of budgets from other media has mainly benefited this channel. This is precisely the case for consumer goods and distribution, which do not hesitate to use this channel (+13%).
All sectors have mainly turned to digital and the five main media to the detriment of other more traditional media (advertising mail, directories, unaddressed printed matter, street furniture, etc.). Screenshot: France Hub.
What forecasts for the advertising and communication market for 2022?
The market for advertising and more generally, growth in France should in particular be driven by the prospects of the France 2030 investment plan. This roadmap devoted to technological innovation should make it possible to relaunch growth thanks to the development of new technologies. GDP growth is estimated at around +3.5% in 2022. Nevertheless, with the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, this hypothesis seems optimistic.
Thus, the 5 historical media will increase overall in 2022 by + 3% to 8 billion euros and will remain -4.2% below their 2019 level. The digital market will increase overall in 2020 by at least 10% while standing at 33% above its 2019 level. When the health crisis ends, and if the context remains stable, media dynamics should return to their pre-Covid trends, with a slight improvement.
More generally, the bump estimates the value of the advertising market at around 34 billion euros, for a growth of 9.4%, which should erase all the losses generated in 2020. By way of comparison, it took eight years to erase those caused by the economic crisis of 2009.