$2.4BN

World Cup to boost global ad spend by

The World Cup is believed to add $2.4bn to global ad spend this year, according to Zenith. In the UK, it will account for an extra £40m, taking into account both the extra money spent by advertisers seeking to reach World Cup audiences and reductions by advertisers looking to avoid this competitive period. Zenith says the opportunities lie both in the size of the audience – typically 3.5 billion people from 200 countries tune in to watch – and the demographics, with the World Cup attraction young, upmarket and mobile consumers typically hard to reach on TV. There is also an opportunity in social media, as brands seek to join the conversations around the games, as well as in increased traffic to news and sports sites, more internet searches and higher sales of newspapers. China is expected to see the biggest increase in dollar terms, with the World Cup generating $835m in extra ad spend, or 1% of the entire market. Host nation Russia will also benefit, seeing a $64m boost, equal to 2.1% of ad expenditure in 2018. “The World Cup provides a reliable boost to the global ad market every four years, and will be responsible for 10% of all the growth in ad dollars this year,” says Jonathan Barnard, Zenith’s head of forecasting and director of global intelligence. “This year’s tournament will showcase the brand-building powers of both traditional television and social media.”