• by Joe Mandese , September 9, 2024

With more than 4 of every 5 advertising dollars allocated to digital media, China has the greatest share of digital of any developed nation, according to just-released data from Guideline.

The new data, which comes from Guideline's expansion into a pooled agency media-buying service akin to others Guideline already operates in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, also reveals the U.S. ranks No. 2, with nearly two-thirds (63.8%) of all ad dollars bought by the pooled agencies going into digital media buys during the first half of 2024.

The Guideline data does not characterize the scale of media spending in each of the markets, but according to GroupM's mid-year 2024 update, the U.S. and China are the world's two dominant advertising markets, projected to account for $366 billion and $199 billion, respectively this year.

The U.K. ($48 billion), Canada ($18 billion), and Australia ($16 billion) also rank in the top 10, according to GroupM, but New Zealand is not delineated in its most recent reports (in 2022, GroupM estimated New Zealand's ad market at $1.2 billion).

Other top insights from Guideline's new China ad market analysis include:

• Social media gains the largest share of ad spend across all media sectors, at 40.5%. It continues to grow with the value of ad spend to social platforms, +7.4% so far this year to July, while bookings to social video sites increased +12.7%.

• Outdoor media is the second largest media in China, with 13% of all ad spend year-to-date .

• Beauty/grooming and clothing/fashion accessories are the market’s largest product categories, followed by consumer electronics.

• Beauty/grooming’s share of ad spend to social platforms (such as Xiao Hong Shu, Weibo and WeChat) dipped 3.4 percentage points in the first half of this year to 29.6%.

 In a related move, Guideline announced the appointment of Doug Pearce, former CEO and chairman of Omnicom Media Group China, to lead its China-based operations.