Michele Majidi
Researcher
Advertising in Italy - statistics & facts
The Italian ad market has 10 billion reasons to celebrate. In 2024, advertisers were expected to dish out more than 10 billion euros in ad campaigns in Italy, crossing a significant threshold and marking a notable increase from the previous year´s value of nine billion. On its part, the share of digital in the ad spend of Europe’s fourth-largest economy hovered close to half of the total, as television’s dominance as the main advertising medium becomes a memory.
After years of being hot on the heels of television advertising, digital managed to surpass it in 2020 and is now moving towards gaining most of the country’s whole advertising pie. In 2023, advertisers spent 4.84 billion euros on digital ad campaigns in Italy, a figure that was projected to surpass the five-billion-mark the following year.
GroupM’s Wavemaker was the media agency with the largest market share in Italy in 2023, with almost one fifth of total activity value. Italy's ad market has also proven successful on the European stage, with the Milan chapter of Publicis being elected the fourth most creative ad agency in Europe.
Traditional media is still going strong, while digital basks in the top spot
Digital’s rule all the same, television remains one of the most popular and widespread media in Italy, with a stable ad spend to boot. Radio and cinema ad spending made timid gains in 2023. Outdoor ad spending was also projected to rise over the following three years. Newspaper advertising’s already existing downward slope accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic and was projected to continue in a steady fashion over the following years. A yearly decrease in print newspaper ad spending was accompanied by an equivalent gradual increase in digital newspaper ad spending.After years of being hot on the heels of television advertising, digital managed to surpass it in 2020 and is now moving towards gaining most of the country’s whole advertising pie. In 2023, advertisers spent 4.84 billion euros on digital ad campaigns in Italy, a figure that was projected to surpass the five-billion-mark the following year.
GroupM’s Wavemaker was the media agency with the largest market share in Italy in 2023, with almost one fifth of total activity value. Italy's ad market has also proven successful on the European stage, with the Milan chapter of Publicis being elected the fourth most creative ad agency in Europe.
