German Ad Market Drops 7.1% In 2001

Radio was the hardest hit by the slowdown, declining by 19.3% for the final month of 2001; newspapers also suffered, down by 11.0%. Only magazines outperformed the broker’s forecasts: ABN predicted growth of -8.0%; the sector actually fell by 7.6%.

Outdoor, on the other hand, massively underperformed as against the forecasts. The sector fell by 1.3%, whilst ABN analysts had predicted a positive growth of 11.1%, as shown.

German advertising growth, December 2001
	Oct ’01	Nov ’01	Dec ’01	Dec ’01F
Television	-8.6	-10.1	-9.8	-8.6
Radio	-7.6	-13.1	-19.3	-10.7
Magazines	-10.5	-11.2	-7.6	-8.0
Newspapers	-9.1	-10.3	-11.0	-8.3
Outdoor	-11.1	-0.4	-1.3	11.1
Total	-9.4	-10.2	-9.8	-7.7
Source: ABN Amro, 01/02/02

The full year 2001 showed total adspend down 7.1% in Germany. The UK, by way of comparison, dropped around 4.0% in 2001 (see UK Advertising Growth Forecasts Update).

German advertising growth, Q4 and 2001FY
	Q4A	Q4F	2001A	2001F
Television	-9.5	-9.1	-5.2	-5.0
Radio	-13.0	-10.4	-10.6	-9.9
Magazines	-9.9	-10.0	-4.6	-4.6
Newspapers	-10.1	-9.3	-10.2	-10.0
Outdoor	-4.9	-2.0	-0.9	-0.1
Total	-9.8	-9.3	-7.1	-7.0
Source: ABN Amro, 01/02/02