In 2017, advertising spending in Southeast Europe grew by 7%, reaching net 1.17 billion euros. According to weCAN, a network of independent advertising agencies in Central and Eastern Europe, the combined spending of Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Romania made up to 9% of the total ad spending of the CEE region last year.
The advertising market recorded a growth in all countries except Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Croatia, Agrokor, the biggest Croatian company with a €6.5-billion revenue and almost 60,000 employees across the region was on the brink of collapse in Q1 of 2017. The crisis was a big shock for the media market too, as Agrokor’s estimated budget decreased to €5 million last year (down by 50%, compared to 2016), that ended the biggest Croatian agency handling the company’s advertising account: Unex.
Another major event was Spar’s takeover of Billa (REWE Group): as a result, another @2 million yearly budget disappeared from the market. “While the Croatian economy in general recorded a growth, the media market demonstrated a 1.4% decrease. Luckily, it has recovered and is on a path of steady growth now,” writes the CANnual Report 2018, which will be published this autumn.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, advertising spending shrank by 8.7% – partly as a consequence of the financial problems of Agrokor, being present in the Bosnian market with its retail company Konzum. Digital advertising spending was only 6% of the total ad turnover, which is by far the lowest figure in the whole CEE region. The possible reasons of underinvestment in digital are cheap TV-commercials as well as lack of regulation, standards and measuring in Bosnia, according to the CANnual Report 2018.
Similar to the last 3 years, Southeast Europe was again the geographical area within the whole CEE region where advertisers spent the most on television ads in 2017. The share of television within the total advertising spending of these markets did not decrease but stagnated or downright increased. It is a result of advertisers investing an increasing amount of their budgets – previously allocated to print – on television and online tools.
Digital ad spending reached 222 million euros – 19% of the total ad spending – in the SEE countries. The share of online grew or stagnated in all markets, and exceeded print within the total expenditures. Serbia was the last country where print had a larger share than digital, but thanks to the YoY 24% growth that made Serbia range as second by digital growth in Europe – according to IAB – print finally gave in to digital media in this country as well.
