Advertisers, Media Now Able to Track Chinese Ad Demand with Guideline

SYDNEY, Sept. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Guideline, the world’s leading provider of advertising intelligence and media planning solutions, has today delivered the first cross-media visibility into Chinese media expenditure with the launch of its single-source Chinese ad spend solution.

China boasts the largest share of digital revenue amongst Guideline Pool markets.
China boasts the largest share of digital revenue amongst Guideline Pool markets.

This expansion of Guideline into China gives all media stakeholders the first cross-media view of ad spend into one of the world’s largest ad markets.

China is the sixth country in which Guideline publishes ad spend data sourced from its unique partnerships with the world’s leading media agencies, giving global advertisers, media owners, and platforms the ability to gain an accurate, single-sourced view of media and product category demand across the US, UK, Australia, Canada, NZ markets, and now China.

Designed in partnership with Guideline’s SMI China Agency Advisory Board, comprised of senior leaders from each contributing media agency, the offering is specifically curated for international advertisers and others with interests in the Chinese Mainland media market.

“We are very excited about the insights we have created with our global partners. Our data delivers the first cross-media view of ad spend trends in China, and with such a large proportion of ad spend going to China, Guideline is the only solution for industry players who need to understand how to maximize their investments in this important market,” said David Hahn, Guideline COO.

In Guideline Spend, Chinese ad expenditure is reported in RMB and updated monthly. According to Guideline Pool contributors,

  • Digital Media’s share of total Chinese ad spend outpaces any other major international market at 82%
  • 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%

“The media marketplace in China is more digitally focused than in other countries and this has seen huge growth in social media, influencer marketing, and live streaming within ecommerce platforms so we’re providing great insights to multinational advertisers about how their own markets may evolve,” Hahn said.” With Guideline now delivering the first view of product category spend across Chinese media owners, multinational advertisers can finally gain an accurate view of their share of ad spend within this market.”

Guideline has appointed Doug Pearce, the former CEO and chairman of OMG China, to lead its China-based operations.

To learn more about Guideline Spend in China, please contact China Managing Director Doug Pearce: Doug.Pearce@guideline.au or APAC Managing Director Jane Ractliffe: Jane.Ractliffe@Guideline.ai.

About Guideline

Guideline was formed with the combination of Standard Media Index, SQAD and Lumina. Guideline is the leading source of advertising pricing and spend data as well as media planning solutions. SMI accesses actual spend from the world’s largest media buying groups, as well as leading independents, and then organizes that data to create a clear, granular, and easy-to-use database for our clients and agency partners. By aggregating this data, Guideline offers detailed ad intelligence across all media types, including Television, OTT, Digital, Out of Home, Print and Radio. Data can be segmented by ad types, publishers, product categories, and many other dimensions.