J. G. Navarro
Research expert covering advertising and marketing with a focus on South America
Advertising in Chile – statistics & facts
Chile finally joined the group of economies where the internet alone attracts more than half of the investments in advertising. In 2023, digital channels' share in Chile's ad spending surpassed 50 percent for the first time. In 2019, online ads accounted for less than one-third of the expenditure. The transition might have been a bit overdue since Chile ranks among South America's most sophisticated economies and was the first in the region to join the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), for example. Furthermore, it is yet to catch up with the regional average. Digital's share in the Latin American ad spend will reach an estimated 56 percent in 2024. Still, online channels' contribution boosted the Chilean market's post-pandemic results: Between 2019 and 2023, Chile's total ad expenditure increased by nearly 40 percent, amounting to roughly one trillion Chilean pesos in the latter year. The value amounts to around two-thirds of that of neighboring Argentina.
The palpable expansion of outdoor media also reflects characteristics of a post-pandemic scenario where consumers reoccupy public places and brand activation reenters spaces other than one's small screens at home. OOH ad spending in Chile surpassed pre-pandemic heights already in 2022 and exceeded 100 billion pesos in the following year.
If outdoor ads rise while some media consumed privately lose momentum, TV sets are the devices suffering the most. TV advertising's share in the Chilean ad expenditure went from about 36 percent in 2020 to less than 29 percent in 2023. The figure, which combines free and pay TV ad revenues, was still second only to the internet but entered the 2020s with a downward trend.
Chilean ad channels' evolution
A closer look at each medium's performance in the Chilean ad market in 2023 reveals that cinema recorded an increase rate of almost 170 percent as it recovered from the COVID-19 side effects, whereas print media continued to decline. Meanwhile, only second to cinema, one channel grew slightly more than the internet that year: out-of-home (OOH) advertising. Conversely, TV plummeted even further than magazines and newspapers, mostly – but not only – due to pay TV's downturn in the face of video streaming.The palpable expansion of outdoor media also reflects characteristics of a post-pandemic scenario where consumers reoccupy public places and brand activation reenters spaces other than one's small screens at home. OOH ad spending in Chile surpassed pre-pandemic heights already in 2022 and exceeded 100 billion pesos in the following year.
If outdoor ads rise while some media consumed privately lose momentum, TV sets are the devices suffering the most. TV advertising's share in the Chilean ad expenditure went from about 36 percent in 2020 to less than 29 percent in 2023. The figure, which combines free and pay TV ad revenues, was still second only to the internet but entered the 2020s with a downward trend.
