Advertisers Expect Hong Kong Digital Ad Spending to Surpass Offline in 2017

Digital ad spending in Hong Kong will surpass offline advertising for the first time in 2017, according to a survey of advertisers conducted by Nielsen for Hong Kong Advertisers Association (HK2A). Digital expenditures will make up 51% of all advertising, while 49% will be allocated to offline channels.

The survey queried about 100 advertisers in Hong Kong between December 2, 2016, and January 10, 2017.

Nielsen's survey data on share of digital ad spending skews high compared to other forecasts. eMarketer's estimate for digital's share of total ad spending for 2017 is 20.4%. The projection from ZenithOptimedia is about the same at 20.2%. Group M predicts the digital ad spending portion of total media in Hong Kong will be 29.8%.

The HK2A survey polled ad professionals about why they used digital media. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said one reason they used digital advertising was that it’s more relevant for their target markets.

The same percentage said they used digital advertising because it could improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

But it’s not just about specificity of targeting or effectiveness of messaging—some simply use digital advertising in the hopes of catching the eye of more people.

Over 60% of respondents said they used digital ads to expand their reach, while 52% said digital ads added more touchpoints.

Respondents also cited some challenges related to digital ads: 45% said the increasingly fragmented media landscape was an obstacle, and 40% said it was difficult to understand customer interactions across channels.

When it comes to overall ad expenditures, respondents didn’t predict an exceedingly bright spending year. Just 26% said they expected their ad budget to increase in 2017, while 48% said they expected budgets to go unchanged.

—Ben Clague