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Mobile advertising has been taking off lately. One major factor for this growth, in the Indian context, is the increasing internet and mobile penetration in the country.

According to the Pitch Madison Advertising Report 2019, internet penetration in India has increased from 4.2% to 41.4% over the past decade. Thanks to the availability of low-cost internet and cheap smartphones, India has now turned into a mobile-first economy. With an overall smartphone user base of 400 million, India now the second largest smartphone market in the world.

Smartphones have become an integral part of our daily lives, not just in India but across the globe. As per reports, in 2018 an average adult spends more than five hours a day on their smartphones, each day. The global growth in the widespread popularity of mobile devices can be attributed to the fact that mobile devices offer on-the-go services such as entertainment and other utilities like ecommerce apps, news apps, banking apps and so on at the tip of our fingers.

A booster shot from the general and state elections and greater credibility will make the print media a dominant force in India in 2019, surpassing an impressive growth rate of 2018, Magna Global, a division of media agency group IPG Mediabrands, had forecast.

As per the report, print media ad revenues grew 5.6% in 2018 to Rs 22,121.8 crore, and it is expected to go up to Rs 22,424.3 crore in 2019. Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands, said print is also growing because of the credibility it offers in this era of fake news.

“India is the only market in the world where print continues to be dominant and is growing in all aspects — circulation, readership and geography. The medium is growing strongly on the back of language, which has led to the growth in the number of language newspapers,”

Ad spending in India to soar 46% by 2021:

India is set for an advertising boom with a predicted 46% surge in advertisement spending during 2018-2021, said Publicis Groupe’s media agency Zenith. The robust performance will help India break into the world’s top 10 advertising markets for the first time and become the eight largest market by 2021, Zenith said in its advertising expenditure forecasts report issued on Monday.

Advertising expenditure in India is expected to reach ₹ 91,742 crore by 2021, from ₹ 62,699.3 crore in 2018, the agency said. The growth will reflect on all forms of media, according to the report. While newspaper advertising is forecast to rise to ₹ 25,408.5 crore from ₹ 22,341.1 crore, magazine advertising will grow to ₹954.7 crore from ₹ 934.7 crore in the same period. Television advertising will climb to ₹ 36,510.7 crore from ₹ 24,156.9 crore. Digital advertising will see a big jump, too, to ₹ 20,913.4 crore.

The events and activations industry in India is expected to cross Rs 10,000 crore mark by 2020-21, as per an EY-EEMA (Event and Entertainment Management Association) report.

The industry, which was at Rs 5,631 crore in 2016-17 overall, has been growing at a 16% CAGR, even overtaking the Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry, which is growing at 11-13% CAGR, the report called ‘#Experience_Next’ said.

Key growth drivers for growth are digital activation, sports leagues, rural expansion and government initiatives followed by IPs, personal events, product launches, expansion of minimetros and below the line spends, the report, based on a survey of 64 event management companies and 31 marketers, said.

The largest segment is still managed events with around 90 per cent of respondents providing them, whereas average IPs and activations per respondent have doubled since 2013-14, the report said. Interestingly, digital is driving the growth and average digital events per respondent have grown 9x since 2013-14.

Smartphone vendors to spend ₹330 crore on digital marketing in India

72% of this spending will be targeted at mobile platforms while the rest on web platforms. India continues to be a buzzing smartphone market, with 10% annual growth in 2018, according to a Feb 2019 report by Canalys.

According to Smartphone Digital Marketing in India’ report by techARC, published on April 2, 2019, smartphone OEMs are expected to spend ₹330 crore on digital marketing and 72% of this spending will be targeted at mobile platforms while the rest on web platforms. The emphasis is more on mobile platforms as majority of internet users in the country rely on their smartphones for their daily searches, video playbacks and social media posts and updates.

India continues to be a buzzing smartphone market, with 10% annual growth in 2018, at a time when some of the bigger markets like China and US are going through a slump in smartphone sales, according to a Feb 2019 report by Canalys.

Digital is increasingly becoming the preferred mode in marketing of smartphones as it helps brands to establish an engaging connect with the millennials, points out Faisal Kawoosa, Founder and Chief Analyst, techARC. He further adds that apart from Google Adwords and Facebook advertising, OEMs are also focusing on brand bidding and keyword bidding.

Ad frauds. The fact that India accounts for 8.7% of global online ad fraud and its is expected to increase by 23% in 2019, according to a March 2019 report by techARC, will require more perceptive efforts from OEMs.