Ad spend on print media grew by 39 percent – from Rs 11,925 crore to Rs 16,595 crore – in 2021, according to the Pitch Madison Advertising Outlook Report 2022, the Economic Times reported. The report also predicted that the segment will grow by 13 percent in 2022 and that India’s ad expenditure will grow by 20 percent this year.

According to Exchange 4 Media, the report released on Wednesday states that India had the highest ad expenditure in the world last year, at 22 percent. In 2021, India’s total advertising expenditure across media grew by 37 percent, it said, adding that the biggest contributors were consumer goods, e-commerce and new-age companies.

Sam Balsara, chairman and managing director of Madison World, said, "While we had forecasted a 20 percent growth in AdEx in 2022, we were surprised to see the industry growing by 37 percent in the last year…India remained the fastest growing advertising market,” Exchange 4 Media reported.

“For 2022, after carefully considering multiple micro and macro trends globally, we forecast a 20 percent growth in the overall AdEx, taking the Indian advertising industry’s value to 90,000 crores,” Balsara added.

In terms of ad space, the report claims that English publications showed the highest growth at 40 percent and accounted for 45 percent of the total print expenditure. The report attributes the growth in English publications to the fast moving consumer goods industry, and the education and automotive sectors.

Ad space in Hindi publications rose by 30 percent, in Telugu publications by 37 percent, in Assamese and Marathi by 33 percent each, and in Bengali publications by 27 percent. The report states that it grew by 31 percent in traditional and 50 percent in digital.

In terms of the top 50 advertisers, the report said that 15 new-age companies joined the list last year, including Dream 11, Byju's, PhonePe, Upstox, My11 Circle, CRED, Netmed, MPL, Policybazaar, Unacademy, WhiteHat Jr, Swiggy, Netflix, Coin Switch Kuber and Coin DCX.