The Russian advertising market in 2024 will grow due to telecom, banking, food retail and e-commerce.

This conclusion was reached by the participants of the business discussion "Status. Clients, sellers, agencies — what do we want from each other?", which was organized by Igronik Group and Kommersant Publishing House.

The discussion was attended by leading industry representatives: Ekaterina Veselkova, CEO of Gazprom-Media Sales House, Alexey Tolstogan, CEO of NRA, Robert Mirzoyan, Executive Director of Russ Group, Violetta Zubkova, Director of Marketing Procurement at Avito, Alexey Giyazov, Director of Marketing, Design and Customer Engagement at Alfa Bank, Commercial Director MegaFon Pavel Tulubyev, Chief Managing Director of OKKAM Mikhail Shklyaev, President of Media Instinct Group Alexey Bakhterov and President of the Igronik Group Nikita Pipko. The moderators were Karolina Sokolova, CEO of Sales House EVEREST, and Alexander Zakharov, Chairman of the Board of the Seller Digital Alliance.

The nature of the discussion was set by Karolina Sokolova. "Firstly, this is the first conference of the Igronik group of this scale. Secondly, we want to make the most honest, open dialogue. We don't have presentations, and you won't get terabytes of analytics, but I hope today we will get answers to the questions that everyone is discussing, but are afraid to ask," she said.

All participants of the discussion noted that the advertising market reflects the state of the overall Russian economy, which is growing. A low unemployment rate and an increase in real incomes of the population will contribute to activity in the consumer market.

Alexey Tolstogan, General Director of the NRA, told about the categories of goods that will grow next year.

"Finance, e-commerce, Internet services and telecom are showing a positive trend. In 2024, the banking category can potentially take 18% of our income — this is an impressive figure. Even 10 years ago, there were practically no banks on the air, now they are present in every advertising block. We will also see a serious recovery track in pharma. It is also nice to see that food, soft drinks and other FMCG categories have finally broken out in the top," Alexey Tolstogan stressed.

The drivers of the advertising market will be those industries in which there is an oligopoly, that is, three or four major players are fighting for their share within the market. This is exactly what happens in banking, food retail and e-commerce. The fight is for every client. "Nothing changes in our market in terms of the number of customers. At the same time, 2023 is a very successful year in telecom, the growth was units of percent, closer to 10, against 3-4% a year earlier. And this is a very good indicator," said Pavel Tulubyev, Commercial director of MegaFon.

According to Alexey Bakhterov, president of the Instinct Group Media, market growth depends on two factors. Firstly, it is an increase in the price of inventory against the background of a shortage. Secondly, it is the growth of high-quality traffic.

A heated discussion broke out around the evaluation of the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and the need to introduce a single measurement standard for all segments. Market participants noted that almost all major brands have expertise in analyzing the effectiveness of advertising investments. Therefore, it is necessary to combine expertise and make an industrial standard, thanks to which the market will become more representative and transparent.

According to Violetta Zubkova, Director of Marketing Procurement at Avito, it is important for businesses to develop their own expertise and methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Avito has a professional team of resellers who conduct their own analysis of the effectiveness of all advertising placements. "We know how to calculate the ROI of each media and even each site. Of course, when choosing media, we use both industrial research and the expertise of agencies. But in making decisions about channels, business focuses primarily on its own ROI data," Ms. Zubkova stressed.

Alexey Giyazov, Director of Marketing, Design and Customer Engagement at Alfa-Bank, noted that the company uses inhouse specialists in almost all cases and in exceptional situations resorts to the services of creative agencies. "The whole function is completely inside – both creative editors, designers, and other specialists, everything is inside the company. Firstly, it is fast, and secondly, it is effective," Mr. Giyazov believes.

Mikhail Shklyaev, Chief Managing Director of OCCAM, spoke about the competition of advertising agencies with smart algorithms and programmers.

"If everyone has one "sell" button, how will you win the competition? No way. You won't sell. We have a certain number of people, they have a certain amount of money. Everyone will not buy from everyone the same, so the issue of competition is a question of how people fight for their market share with different tools. Up to a certain point, you can develop with one-button tools, then a performance plateau comes, after which you need to connect other mechanics, and this is typical agency work," Mikhail Shklyaev said.

Alexander Zakharov, Chairman of the Board of the seller Digital Alliance, noted that the trend for the consumption of entertainment content continues. At the same time, the tendency for people to search for themselves, their identity, and a place in the world is increasing; interest in professional advancement is growing. In response to such consumer requests, a steady trend has formed for the growth of interest in education in various formats, for the launch of many educational projects.

Robert Mirzoyan, Executive Director of Russ Group, who rarely participates in business events, also took part in the discussion. According to him, market participants have made a huge amount of investment in the outdoor advertising segment, including in the development of inventory. For the last 10 years, outdoor advertising has suffered deflation, now players have a different approach both in terms of investments and metrics. "We pay a lot of attention to the metrics that are provided to us by Mediascope. Today we can confidently say that all our investments in market transparency are justified – we give the client a full understanding of the entire work of the advertising campaign and he sees its effectiveness," Robert Mirzoyan said.

The results of the discussion were summed up by the President of Igronik Group Nikita Pipko. "The role of advertising agencies cannot be underestimated. Although the functional tasks of all market participants – sellers, agencies and advertisers – are different, agencies must defend their place in the sun with a service. The service is not only the client part, but also professional expertise. We have to work very hard to offer customers the highest quality product at the most loyal price. This approach is the key to the future of advertising agencies," concluded Mr. Pipko.