Ad spend soars despite media price inflation

Shanghai- As China's GDP grew 10% year-on-year in the first half of this year, GroupM reports media investment growth will continue to keep pace with the increasing volume of consumer spending and retail distribution in major cities of China.

Despite surging consumer prices and media cost, media investment is still driven mainly by local and multinational advertisers across all sectors.

According to GroupM, TV remains 60% market share among other mediums, dominating the media, whereas prints and internet contribute 11% and 7%, respectively.

GroupM expects overall TV media price inflation of around 19% this year, but this is subjected to many variables and TV vendors the advertisers use.

It forecasts media investors will spend $20 billion in TV, $3 billion in print and $2 billion online. It concludes that mobile and CLD screens are catching up with combined ad spend is likely to soar at higher pace than the internet.

Chinese companies will keep focusing on brand-building, with the Expo 2010 coming up in Shanghai.