The communications agency market - Italy (2024)

1.2 Booming global market

Global advertising spending was over $*** billion in ****, according to Zenith Forecasts estimates, up +**% from the **** global downturn caused by the crisis, which severely affected business confidence and available capital. The global advertising market grew at a CAGR of +*% during ****-****.

The global advertising market can be estimated at $*** billion in ****, considering the largest players in the industry.

In ****, according to data from the largest companies, the global market would grow by *.* percent to $*** billion. The following year is expected to see a growth rate parts to crica double, +*.* percent, amounting to more than $* trillion.

According to WARC's study, **.* percent of global advertising spending in **** is related to a small cluster of * large media-owning companies -- Alibaba, Alphabet, Amazon, Bytedence and Meta. The share of spending related to this cluster is also expected to be confirmed in ****, with an increase of +*.*%.

Global advertising spending World, ****-****, in billions of dollars Source: ****

According to the Dentsu Group, the Asia-Pacific and North America regions will be the main drivers of global growth in ****, accounting for **.* percent and **.* percent of global growth, respectively.

Projected share of global growth World, ****, in % Source: ****

1.3 The European market

The dynamism of the communications market in Europe is mainly due to three major countries: the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, in that order.

In ****, the total communication market was worth £**.** billion in the UK.

Chiffre d'affaires du marché de la communication Europe de l'ouest, ****-****, milliards de dollars Source: ****

While the Western European market contracted in ****, the European communications market is expected to exceed its pre-crisis level by the end of ****. Again, these figures are only indicative, reflecting the general state of the European communications market and are not specific to communications agencies.

1.4 The Italian market

We refer here to two ATECO headings, one refers to **.** "Public relations and communication" and includes:

activities on behalf of third parties aimed at improving the public image of an organization or business, press office activities on behalf of third parties the promotion of the local economy.

We can see in the graph below that the overall turnover of this sector has grown a lot in ten years - from **** to **** - from ***.* million euros annually to * billion euros in turnover. This represents a very positive change of +**%, which shows that the sector is following a positive trend.

In **** we can see a decline in the sector's turnover, this is due to the crisis period related to the pandemic, thus an exogenous factor. In fact, in ****, turnover returns to growth, registering +*% compared to ****.

Turnover of the "Public Relations and Communication" sector. Italy, ****-****, millions of euros Source: ****

**.** "Advertising agencies,"

**.**.** The design of advertising campaigns, in which we find the following activities: conception of advertising campaigns: creation and placement of advertising for newspapers, periodicals, radio, television, Internet and other media creation and dissemination strategy of outdoor advertising, e.g.: billboards, billboards, brochures, window dressing, design of showrooms, advertising lettering on ...

2.1 The advertising media

At the end of ****, the Italian advertising market, including sales on TV, Print, Internet Media, Radio and Out of Home, reached a total value of *.* billion euros, slightly growing (***) compared to ****.

Within this landscape, the Internet increasingly confirms its market leadership with a **% share and +*% growth over ****; followed by TV (***).

In particular,Internet Advertising at the end of **** reached *.* billion euros. However, themarket trend is conditioned only by the performance of a few players: in fact, the concentration of Internet advertising in the hands of large international players increases in ****, who collect**% (***) of advertising investments.

Market share of different media for advertising Italy, ****, % observatories.net

Traditional TV

In March ****, monthly contacts of traditional TV reached ** million individuals, thus almost ** percent of Italians consume at least one minute of TV.

This figure might reassure about the "ratings crisis" related to TV, however, after the hyper-consumption of the years referable to the pandemic, there is a gradual trend of audience erosion. More like a polarization of video consumption, a phenomenon that affects both TV and platforms.

For television, the average consumption calculated over the entire population reaches an average of * */* hours per day.

According to Sensemakers' research, the population can be divided into ...

2.2 Italians and their relationship to the Internet

For many advertisers, communication takes place via the Internet. These are advertising campaigns via e-mail (***), or on video and audio platforms such as YouTube and Spotify.

it is therefore interesting to analyze the relationship of Italians with the Internet. Internet users in Italy are about **.** million, thus**.* percent of the population.

The average time spent by people aged **-** on the Internet is * hours and ** minutes, down by -*.*%, or ** minutes.

The graph below shows the average time of Internet users on different media. As for changes from ****, time spent reading print media, both online and physical, increased by +*.*%. Time spent listening to the radio also increased by +*.*%; particularly significant increase concerns the daily time spent listening to podcasts, +**.*%.

Daily time spent on different media Italy, ****, in hours wearesocial.com

As for the motivations for seeking access to the online world, these do not appear to have changed much since ****: seeking information, either in a general sense (***) remain the main ones.

Next is searching for new ideas or inspiration, with about ** percent, and right after that is watching videos or shows and finally listening to music.

Main motivations for using the Internet Italy, ****,% wearesocial.com

2.3 Demand trend: the decline of advertisers' investment in print media

The following data are related to the activity registered under ATECO **.** Publishing of magazines and periodicals. We immediately notice a fairly sharp decline since ****: the national turnover of the sector has fallen from **** million euros in **** to **** million euros in ****, experiencing a change of -**% in only * years.

Despite the overall decline from the years leading up to ****, in **** the turnover of businesses in the sector will return to growth, up *.*% from ****.

Chiffre d'affaires de l'édition de magazines et périodiques Italie, ****-****, en millions d'euros Source: ****

strong underlying downward trend

Variation annuelle du chiffre d'affaires publicitaire dans la presse magazine, par périodicité Italie, ****-****, % Source: ****

Let's look in more detail at how this phenomenon impacts the entire press in the table below:

2.4 Demand trend: the influencer market and digital

Most used social media

The study of the **th Censis report on communication shows that the most popular and widely used social platform in Italy is WhatsApp. The popular messaging app is used by **.* percent of respondents. A figure that is not surprising given the absolute predominance that instant messaging has in people's lives, either for work or to keep in touch with friends and relatives.

the second most used platform is Youtube, which has always been very popular among Italians, gathering**.*% of respondents. In third place is Instagram, with **.*%. The more extensive ranking can be viewed below.

Most used social platforms Italy, ****,% techprincess.co.uk

Influencer Marketing

In ****,**% of companies activated influencer marketing campaigns. Overall, the economic value invested by brands to publicize their products on social media via an influencer reaches a record *** million euros, rising to +*% compared to ****.

Influencer marketing currently stands, therefore, as an indispensable lever for brand communication. In Italy, the number of creators who can be defined as influencers is around *** thousand people.

Regarding the source of origin of the budget that companies invest ininfluencer marketing, for the most part, **% the allocated expenditure is part of the media budget, for **% it resides in the marketing ...

3.1 Industry enterprises in Italy: how many, where and what are they?

Let us analyze as explained earlier the structures of two Italian sectors, the first recorded under **.** "Public relations and communication" and the second under **.** "Advertising agencies."

The structure of the first sector remains stable through the years : from ***** employed in **** we go to ***** in **** (***).

In **** there is a considerable increase of enterprises in the sector, +**% compared to ****. The average number of employees also increases, although less significantly. Given the trend of recent years, it can be assumed that the sector will expand, albeit slowly.

Number of firms and employees in the "Public Relations and Communication" sector Italy, ****-****, units Source: ****

The second sector, on the other hand, shows remarkable changes, with a lot of business creation and employment hiring since ****. In ten years, firms have increased from ***** to ***** (***).

Looking at the graph, it is immediate to grasp the positive trend regarding the number of enterprises, which have increased particularly in the years ****-****. Employees also follow theupward trend, except for the slight decline in ****. So in the case of advertising agencies , theexpansion of the sector in Italy is evident, with an increase in the number of enterprises and related employment.

Number of enterprises and employees in the "Advertising agencies" sector Italy, ...

3.2 Production of advertising companies

Advertising production is a market that has been little affected by the Covid-** crisis: in fact, the value of production has increased sharply in recent years. In ****, production reached a value of **.* billion euros. The time when this market was most in crisis was in ****, during the housing crisis.

Production value of advertising companies Italy, ****-****, in billions of euros Source: ****

3.3 The organization of a communications agency

Working in a communications or advertising agency offers different types of jobs, which can then lead to different job titles. The main ones are:

Account Manager: is a figure who manages clients in the post-sales phase, also manages the advertising budget and accounting of the agency. Account Executive: is a figure who maintains contact with clients, coordinates the work of the agency. In fact, it is this figure who oversees the creation and organization of the agency in order to ensure the launch of the advertising campaign desired by the client. Strategic Marketing Director: is a figure who coordinates the team of technicians and experts who regulate the activity of promoting the client's service or product. Strategic Planner: is a figure who is in charge of researching the market and its trend so that the client who wishes to advertise a product can have in mind all the essential elements for the commercialization of the product. Media Planner: is a figure who is in charge of studying the best platforms for the advertised product: where, when, how, with what medium... also keeps an eye on the budget allocated to the advertising campaign. Art Director and Copywriter: these are two essential figures ...

4.1 The opening of a communications or advertising agency

To practice in the world of communications and advertising there are no specific educational requirements required by law, however, for a successful and functioning business it is advisable to have certain characteristics, for example:

Follow an appropriate educational background (***) Keep up-to-date (***) on digital media Know the industry well and have contacts to promote the business

Requirements:

First of all, there is a bureaucratic path to follow, as with any business.

Thus, the main steps, to be followed with an accountant or other competent figure, are:

Opening a VAT number Registration with the commercial register at the Chamber of Commerce Application to the municipality for the opening of a new business, SCIA Opening of an Inps and Inail position (***)

Note: In the case of also opening a premises, an application must be submitted to the referring ASL.

Next steps:

After completing the bureaucratic steps, a very detailed business plan must be in place to operate a business. Pursuant, one must understand the prices charged by the industry to remain competitive with other businesses. Then, in the world of advertising, it is important to stay up-to-date with the latest news, trends, or media in the market.

As mentioned earlier, having a good network ...

4.2 Prices charged in the market

The following table lists the different services offered by communication and advertising agencies and their prices, in a non-exhaustive manner.

Each agency may have its own range of services, so it is possible that more specific services are offered and that the range of services is broader. In addition, rates vary depending on the specific characteristics of each service.

The services offered may be requested individually, or on a periodic basis.

(***)

5.1 The legal regulation of advertising

As seen during the study, advertisements are broadcast on different platforms: television, radio, online, in digital form... For this reason, the rules governing their use and dissemination are different and specific to each platform. Nevertheless, there are rules to follow:

Penal Code rules to prohibit advertising abuses regarding images broadcasts, which must respect moral ethics EEC Directive No. *** of ****, on prohibitions of misleading advertising, later updated by the document Legislative Decree No. *** of August *, **** Specific rules for online advertising An Institute for Advertising Self-Regulation created by the industry to self-regulate The establishment of the Authority for the Protection of Competition and the Market, deals with the supervision of the content of advertisements, and intervenes after reporting

6.1 Segmentation of actors

The following are the main advertising agencies (***) in Italy by revenue value.

Source: ****

• Publicis Web Performance
• Nielsen
• WPP
• Omnicom Media group France
• Havas Groupe (Groupe Vivendi)
• Teads Italia s.r.l
• Incentive Promomedia s.r.l
• Hearts & Science s.r.l
• Starcom Mediavest Group Italia s.r.l
• Publicis s.r.l