Spain: The land of sun, sangría, and controversial high street brands. Spain ranks fifth among
and is home to some of the world’s most famous clothing labels, such as Zara and Balenciaga – both of which have been at the center of online ad-related scandals over the last two years. In late 2023, activists called for boycotting Zara following a campaign accused of drawing parallelisms between models wrapped in shrouds and destruction in Gaza, while Balenciaga came under fire a year prior for spots showing kids holding teddy bears in harnesses.
Search advertising and institutions rule the arena
Controversies notwithstanding,
Spain’s digital ad spending shows no sign of slowing down, reaching five billion euros in 2023. Over the years, online ad revenues have been accounting for an increasingly larger share of the country’s overall ad spend. In 2020, it overtook traditional ad spending for the first time. The leading digital advertising industry sector was that of institutions, followed by retail. Search was the
top digital advertising format, with more than 2.1 billion U.S. dollars allocated to it. Search and social media collectively accounted for more than half of digital ad expenditures that year, indicating that Spanish marketing experts fan out their investments instead of staking everything on just one card.
Mobile ad spend shoots to the top
The proliferation of mobile devices has reshaped the country’s digital ad landscape, and in 2023, mobile’s share of
total online ad expenditure overtook desktop. In addition to this milestone, forecasts also indicate that advertisers will allocate nearly 60 percent of their budgets to mobile ad campaigns by 2027, highlighting the continuous steps Spanish marketers are taking to keep up with the changes in consumer demand and behavior. As in other digitally developed markets, advertising in Spain is also placing an increasing focus on social media. The Iberian country has a
social network penetration rate of around 85 percent, and with more people using such platforms for news, entertainment, and communication each day,
spending on social media advertising is ramping up nonstop.
Consumers choose normal people over influencers
In a survey about
attitudes towards online advertising conducted in 2023, half of Spanish respondents said they didn’t mind advertising if they got free content in return. When asked how they
discovered new brands, more than one-third of Spanish internet users cited word-of-mouth recommendations from friends or family. This penchant for recommendations made by “normal” people was also reflected by
a higher trust in consumer reviews than in those provided by influencers.
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