eMarketer Scales Back Ad Spend Estimate for Brazil Amidst Economic Uncertainty

Total media ad outlays to grow 5.7% in 2017

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eMarketer - New York, NY (May 22, 2017) — eMarketer expects advertisers in Brazil will spend $3.36 billion on digital advertising this year, a 15.0% gain from 2016. While other countries in Latin America tend to skew more heavily toward digital display ad spending, Brazil will see an almost equal split in outlays on search (46.2%) and display (47.1%) in 2017.

Brazil’s economy has experienced weaker growth than expected over the past year thanks to increasing unemployment, political turmoil, and high consumer prices. As a result, eMarketer has downgraded its total media ad spending outlook for the country to 5.7% for 2017.

Mobile ad spending has had a slow start in Brazil. With 4G coverage rapidly expanding throughout the country coupled with the growing number of smartphone users, eMarketer estimates mobile ad expenditures in Brazil will increase 61.0% this year and account for 78.4% of total digital ad spending by 2021.

However, brands continue to invest a significant amount of advertising dollars in television, which will account for more than half (53.0%) of total media ad spending in 2017. Unlike other markets in the region, Brazil’s TV viewership does not show signs of declining.

Despite this trend, shifting media consumption patterns among younger consumers have given advertisers in Brazil plenty of reasons to invest in digital media.

In cases where advertisers target younger demographics, spending tends to flow toward digital media, with large portions allocated to mobile over desktop. Conversely, when the target audience is over the age of 45, digital ad spending drops dramatically, and investments in television and radio are more prominent.

Recent shifts in media consumption among consumers have prompted advertisers to rethink strategies to better reach audiences on new platforms and devices. For instance, a study published by Ericsson in November 2016 found that TV and video viewers in Brazil watch content on a mobile device 26% of the time.

—Matteo Ceurvels