The advertising sector noted an increase in billings in the period that covers the first half of the year, this according to data from a survey carried out in August by the Paraguayan Association of Advertising Agencies (APAP).
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The study covered almost all of the 35 agencies that make up the Association and it was found that 60% saw an increase in billings compared to the same period last year. “We are happy, this shows that there are signs of recovery in terms of the advertising market,” says Pascual Rubiani, president of APAP, when evaluating the data.
According to Rubiani, among the reasons for this growth is the reopening of economic activity and, on the other hand, the participation of advertising agencies in other types of services that were not previously offered to customers. “There are a greater number of products, such as strategic planning in communication, social media marketing, etc. Traditional and comprehensive media strategies have also grown; they triggered the recovery,” he explains.
Projection. Although there is an improvement compared to 2020, when compared to the same period in 2019, it is found that 52% of the agencies achieved a turnover below that of that year prior to the pandemic. “Compared to 2020 it is growth, compared to 2019 it is the path of a recovery that we believe can occur in this final semester of 2021 and in 2022, as long as the pandemic continues to be controlled”, Rubiani comments.
In this sense, the president of APAP highlights two factors that could increase the recovery process. On the one hand, “the situation of the pandemic is controlled and there are low levels of contagion, there is a greater return to normal activities,” he says. And he adds that this situation collaborates with the second factor. “Advertisers already have greater confidence to return to the strategies that they had previously developed or to implement new ones, which allow them to increase their advertising investments.”
Advertising. Regarding the participation of advertising in the economic reactivation, Rubiani explains that “communication can help to generate a climate of greater trust for brands in their relationship with consumers and that can generate a greater and better performance of those brands and of the products they advertise in the market. “
In that sense, the advertiser assures that throughout the pandemic two elements have been extremely important: creativity and innovation, aspects that collaborated so that advertisers can reach consumers despite the scenario. “The consumer changed many of their traditional behaviors and there the advertising agencies have been able to help the brands a lot to find new strategic paths to be able to reach those consumers,” he says.
Confidence. In the same way, it observes that situations such as the pandemic itself predispose to “changes in the consumer’s itinerary”, moments where “traditional loyalties are reviewed” and where advertising helps brands have a message and appropriate content at the time that through its consumers, so that existing links can be strengthened and allow that brand to remain valid.
“Brands have to adapt their discourses to the new scenarios and to the new living conditions of consumers. It is the agencies that have found that narrative in some way so that brands could accompany their customers at this time. That is when becomes visible, it is enhanced and then that really allows an increase in the commercial activities of advertisers, “he asserts.
It also expresses that advertisers are facing a propitious moment to increase their actions in favor of greater dynamism within the scope of marketing and consumption activities, elements that are located as “strong enhancers of an economic reactivation for the country” .
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