German advertising industry fears recession
Last year, the advertising market in Germany only grew by 1.8 percent and its share of gross domestic product was at a record low. The president of the industry association now fears a recession.
Negative signals from Germany: the Central Association of the German Advertising Industry (ZAW) fears an advertising slump. Last year, the advertising market in the northern neighboring country only grew by 1.8 percent to 30.78 billion. This was below the previous year's result (+2.1 percent). Further setbacks are now looming: "There is a growing danger that the German advertising market will slide back into recession," said ZAW President Michael Kern in a communiqué. The difficult situation is evident from the fact that the share of advertising investment in gross domestic product (GDP) fell to 1.67 percent last year, the lowest figure since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany. Things do not look good in an international comparison either: Germany's advertising growth of 1.8 percent is far below the global figure of 4.7 percent. Forecasts for 2008 also place Germany at the bottom of the list of industrialized nations: The ZAW assumes growth of 1 percent, which puts Germany at the bottom of the international league table.
The ZAW sees various reasons for the weakening German advertising market, such as changes in the media structure and media use, social and demographic changes among consumers and the EU's industry-specific "advertising censorship".
The ZAW sees various reasons for the weakening German advertising market, such as changes in the media structure and media use, social and demographic changes among consumers and the EU's industry-specific "advertising censorship".
