According to the seventh edition of the Advertising Observatory in Spain 2021, promoted by the Spanish Association of Advertisers (aea), the volume of advertising companies has grown by 5.2%, accounting for a total of 42,971, according to the INE source.
However, as the analyzed figures shown below indicate, 2020 is an atypical year that shows the effects of the pandemic. This radiography of data also affects a series of factors of changes that affect communication and advertising activity in which new models of relationship, content and technification emerge.
Among the main economic data, the following stand out: -The contribution of the aggregate investment of the advertising activity to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stands, according to the latest update of the INE – EPA, at 1.23% compared to 1.30% the previous year. -The total number of companies that, according to the INE.DIRCE (National Institute of Statistics. Central Business Directory) are dedicated to advertising, is 42,971, 5.2% more than the figure for 2019 (40,859).
More than 35% of companies have been born in the last year, which is indicative of a young, renewed sector with great capacity for growth and reinvention. With respect to the measurement that contemplates the last ten years, there has been an increase of 42.8% in the creation of companies.
Regarding the employee stratum, 99% of advertising companies have less than 20 employees, so there is a majority of micro-companies, with a profile by sex of 58.6% of women, compared to 41.3% of men.
-The turnover of the advertising sector decreased by 22.9%, falling in 2020 to 108.9 compared to 131.8 in 2019, but despite this it is above the annual average of the general index of the services sector, which is 103.8 and is also still higher than that of other prominent sectors such as telecommunications (106.14), information and communications (105.8), retail trade (102.1) or transport and storage (98 ).
Regarding the volume of business (19,191 million euros, with a positive 2.5%) it must be specified that only in this case the figure to 2020 is not updated but that the official source INE does not have data after 2019 and does not the pandemic effect has been accounted for.
- “Advertising and market studies” brings together 1.37% of the Spanish business fabric, with 46,658 companies, ahead of sectors as significant in Spanish society as “sports, recreational and entertainment activities” (45,754) or “industry of feeding “(25.309), for example. -The sale of advertising space and time accounts for 52.9% of the business volume of the advertising sector.
-As for the Labor Force Survey (EPA), there is a moderate reduction, registering 110,500 active people (-0.99%), 98,600 employed (-1.79%) and 74,800 salaried (-2.68%) . -By regional concentration, Madrid and Catalonia account for 53.3% of advertising companies, with 12,999 and 9,897 respectively. The 5 communities with the largest advertising fabric are Madrid, Catalonia, Andalusia, the Valencian Community and the Canary Islands. And those of less Navarra, Cantabria, La Rioja, Ceuta and Melilla.
-With regard to advertising investment, according to Infoadex data, Digital continues to be the medium that receives the highest investment (2,174.3 million euros), having decreased by 5.3% compared to the previous year; it is followed by television (1,640.2 M), which fell 18.1%; radius (374.9M), with -22.9%; daily (335.8M), -30.8%; exterior (221.3M), -47.7%; magazines (110.5M), -43.3%; cinema (9.6M), -73.7% and Sunday (12.3M) and -53.8%.
In the scope versus investment comparison, both variables do not behave in a correlative or proportional manner. Despite the fact that television is the medium with the highest penetration in the population, followed by foreign, and digital, it is nevertheless the latter that registers the highest investment (44.57%), being foreign the one that receives the least (4, 5%) even if it is second in scope.
-In terms of the investment ranking by sectors, the first place is occupied by the automotive sector (EUR 387.4 M), followed by distribution and restoration (EUR 374.3 M) and finance (EUR 350.2).
As with the scope, the advertising notoriety of a brand is not always linked to investment, in fact, the first two sectors by investment (automotive and distribution and restoration) exchange their positions in terms of notoriety. If the ranking of sectors with the highest investment by media is analyzed, it is observed that food is the one that invests the most in television, automotive in digital and culture, education and radio communication media.
-With regard to professional profiles, the five types of profiles that are increasingly in demand by companies and that will have special relevance are: Digital Marketing Manager, Customer Satisfaction Expert, Artificial Intelligence Expert, Digital Strategy Director (CDO) and Data scientist and Big Data expert. -In the 2020-2021 academic year there has been an increase of 2.4% in the student body, going from 28,630 to 29,347 students in relation to 2019-2020, with graduates having grown by 21.6% compared to the previous year.
Mainly, the offer of titles related to digital marketing has increased. Special monograph on the factors of change that backbone advertising As a complement to these economic data provided by the Advertising Observatory and, as it is an atypical year marked by the pandemic, from the Committee of Experts of the Spanish Association of Advertisers, -formed by the companies: Arce Media-Auditsa, Boreal Media, Deloitte Consulting, Ebiquity, IMOP Insights, the Higher Institute for Internet Development (ISDI), KANTAR, ODEC, SCOPEN and Wavemaker, all of them collaborating partners of the aea- it has been investigated on the main factors of change that are structuring advertising.
According to this monograph, “Communication at the service of the advertiser”, the pandemic has generated a new collaboration sensitivity, as a result of the uncertainty experienced and has produced the following changes: a renewed relationship between advertisers and agencies, with the need to cooperate between the various agents to solve brand problems. greater transversality.
Verticality is broken and there is a tendency to work more on global projects, with the management of the brand being somewhat more shared. a redefinition of work models and content. E-commerce, big data, as well as artificial intelligence have accelerated, while it is necessary to attend to a useful conversation with the client, with content close to the sensitivity of the citizen.
Communication in values is a priority for brands. a greater technification. The digital transformation has generated a business technification that entails implicit changes in the roles and professional profiles that must be able to understand the process in a more holistic way, but without losing specialization. greater integration of purpose and sale.
The relationship between doing business and creating value is strengthened, combining strategy and tactics. The short term is imposed due to the immediacy that the data produces and its application in the face of the prominence acquired by the consumer. the role of the brand is basic with two approaches, one more strategic, of value creation, and another one of business assets aimed at managing short-term profit.
The media undergo a transformation as advertising spaces and also in their relationship with the consumer, with a great need for complementarity and collaboration since memory and notoriety are no longer sought, but connection understood as a point of contact or brand platform. In the words of the professor of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at the Complutense University of Madrid and president of the Association Forum for Knowledge and Communication Research, Juan Benavides, “one could speak of a clear emergency between the short and long term, Given the progressive need of the short term with the immediacy of the data and the results and the demand of the purpose and value assumed by the brand.
These two objectives can collide and this leads us to speak of a very open situation that must be marked by the prudence and collaboration “. The main associations in this sector (advertisers, advertising and communication companies, digital communication companies, consumers and users of communication, and advertising and media agencies) participate in the Advertising Observatory. The study has been carried out by the Communication Forum that brings together 16 universities and, in this edition, the Committee of Experts of the aas has also collaborated with this monograph.