Japanese adspend hit hard

23 February 2010

Ad spend in Japan dropped 11.5% year-on-year to $64.9bn in 2009, according to figures from Dentsu.

The results are attributed to the global recession and comes despite the positive effects of tax breaks for eco-friendly consumers and elections.  It also represents the second consecutive fall after expenditure was down 4.7% in 2008.

In line with global trends, newspapers suffered most from the decline, with a fall of 18.6%, followed by television’s 10.2% drop, which typified a 14.3% decline in traditional media for the fifth consecutive year.  However, digital broadcasting saw the biggest benefit of shifting trends posting a growth of 4.9%.

 A breakdown of ad expenditure by industry showed 20 of 21 sectors seeing decline, with energy, materials and machinery suffering most with a fall of 32.9% followed by automotive, down 32.9%. Only government and organisations boosted by elections posted a growth in ad spend increasing 4.6%.

Josh Colley