Latin America Ad Spending Summary 2018

As economies in the region begin to recover—coupled with presidential elections and the World Cup—total media ad spending will grow 8.7% this year to $38.04 billion.

• On a global scale, Latin America is the fourth largest ad market and will account for 6.1% of worldwide media ad spending this year. We expect paid media will rise to $44.35 billion by 2022.
• Brazil is the region’s largest ad spending market, at $17.00 billion, and is also the sixth largest in the world, ahead of Australia ($11.99 billion) and France ($11.78 billion).
• Traditional media—in particular, TV—will receive the largest share of overall ad spending in Latin America, at 73.7%, amounting to $28.30 billion. The region’s ad landscape is still very traditional when compared with the worldwide average of 56.5%.
• Digital’s share of total media spend in Latin America will trail the worldwide average: 26.3% vs. 43.5%. Latin America will underindex throughout the forecast period due to the sheer power of TV within the region, and as advertisers play catch-up with rising internet penetration and smartphone adoption rates. We forecast digital will grow from $10.01 billion in 2018 to $14.76 billion in 2022. By then, it will represent one-third of total media expenditures.
• Mobile’s share of total media outlays in Latin America will reach 13.9% this year and climb to 25.8% by 2022. Even though Latin America has made great strides in boosting its mobile investments, it still lags behind most other regions; the global average will be 29.2% in 2018 and rise to 41.9% by the end of the forecast.