After the collapse of the economy.. markets will witness growth in 2023

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Rafik Razali, Managing Director of Media Prima Group, said that the company in general is aware of the challenges ahead as global economic uncertainty could lead to volatility. However, 2022 was a good year for the company as Media Prima recorded a 9% increase in ad revenue in the first half of 2022 (1HFY22) over the comparative period. The group's advertising revenue is led by higher contributions from the broadcast segment of Media Prima - represented by Media Prima Television Networks and Media Prima Audio - which generated a 15% increase in revenue in the first half of fiscal 2022 compared to the comparable period. OOH also returned to the group with Big Tree, the OOH business, achieving 13% revenue growth in the first half of fiscal year 2022.

• Challenges of Economic Uncertainty

Rafeeq said that the company aims to work closely with customers to provide solutions that meet their business needs in a business climate. "We will also focus on our non-advertising revenue, such as content sales and home shopping, which contributed to the group's total revenue," Rafeeq said. At 1HFY22, content sales revenue is up 39% in the current period due to increased demand for local content from existing and new streaming service providers.

he added, “Internally, we will continue to implement cost optimization to protect our bottom line and weather headwinds due to global economic uncertainties,”.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong-based SCMP added that it remains bullish despite macro factors that are expected to pose challenges to significant growth across markets.

• key to success

Parminder Singh, chief commercial and digital officer at Mediacorp, said that to get through the difficult period, partnerships remain the key to success. Specifically, Mediacorp expects performance-based advertising to remain strong. As such, the company is looking to expand its offering of results-based performance models that will allow clients to "de-risk" their investments by linking them to business results.

"Advertisers will pay for ad media use commensurate with the achievement of common goals," Singh explained. Singh added that through this model, Mediacorp was able to leverage its full arsenal of dynamic media assets to drive success for partners.

• What to embrace in the future

While it's often easy to paint a picture of gloom and doom, Anita Munro, GroupM APAC's chief investment officer, said Asia appears optimistic. Looking at marketing spending, the most growing markets are in Southeast Asia like Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and also in South Asia led by India.

She added, "We expect Hong Kong to be more prosperous next year as the market has gradually opened up after a long period of lockdown, and there is a renewed sense of optimism. Meanwhile, with China announcing some initial easing of COVID-19 restrictions, it is sending positive signals to the markets." It may help renew a sense of optimism and support growth across the region.

"Overall, this year's story has been resilient growth in most Asia Pacific markets, and GroupM expects positive outlooks next year across Southeast Asia and India," she added. According to GroupM's Mid-Year Advertisement forecast for next year 2022, advertising in the Asia Pacific region is expected to grow by 8% in 2023.

The expected growth of the following channels:

TV (5%)

Audio (1%)

Newspapers (1%)

Outdoor + Cinema (11%)

digital (10%)

Meanwhile, as the industry moves toward neglecting cookies, Martin Davey, MD, Head of International Business - Publicis Media Singapore, said publishers and broadcasters will double down on the digital business transformation and will use first-party data for better target audience marketing.

Davey anticipates that many brands will continue to focus on tried and tested channels that lead to immediate business results (search, social, automated), but finding the balance between top funnel and bottom funnel tactics will be key. “We fully expect a continuation, and perhaps even an acceleration of the trends that we have seen over the past years, and that advertising money will continue to flow into digital channels,” Davey said.

• growth in most Asia Pacific markets

In his view, advertisers are expected to continue to make the most of lower funnel channels like search, but the fun space to watch will be where the top funnel money is credited. “Software investments will likely continue to grow, as will social platforms like TikTok and Twitch, and last but not least precision marketing will continue to matter, along with new cross-channel capabilities like DOOH beginning to take larger chunks of advertising budgets.

She added, "We expect Hong Kong to be more prosperous next year as the market has gradually opened up after a long period of lockdown, and there is a renewed sense of optimism. Meanwhile, with China announcing some initial easing of COVID-19 restrictions, it is sending positive signals to the markets." It may help renew a sense of optimism and support growth across the region.

"Overall, this year's story has been resilient growth in most Asia Pacific markets, and GroupM expects positive outlooks next year across Southeast Asia and India," she added. According to GroupM's Mid-Year Advertisement forecast for next year 2022, advertising in the Asia Pacific region is expected to grow by 8% in 2023.