Modern challenges and priorities of the advertising industry

The discussion was moderated by Valentin Smolyakov, First Vice-President of AKAR, and Elena Reshetova, First Vice-President of AKAR and Chairman of AKAR's Commission on Social Communications and Social Responsibility of Business.

The topics for discussion were "The Advertising Market in Modern Conditions: Challenges, Trends, Forecasts" and "Priorities for Legislative Regulation of the Advertising Market".

Vladimir Gubernatorov, Deputy Director General of EXPOCENTRE AO, welcomed the participants and spoke about the current situation in the exhibition industry. "The exhibition, as an element of business communication, is experiencing the same challenges, trends and new problems felt by the entire communications market," he said. - In addition, we are also dependent on recent changes in advertising legislation. As a result, Reklama 2022 has lost some of its major exhibitors, but they have been replaced by others. This year there are 50 new exhibitors.

A detailed report on the state of the advertising market was presented by Sergey Piskarev, President of AKAR. "The advertising market is expected to decline in 2022, but it is still difficult to talk about the size of the decline," Piskarev said. “Initial forecasts of the market collapse have not been confirmed, there is a deep transformation taking place due to sanctions and withdrawal of major foreign advertisers from the market. Experts estimated the overall decline in the media advertising market in the country in Q2 at 16%, and the regional market at 19%”.

Alexey Popovichev, Executive Director of the Association of Brand Manufacturers (RusBrand), suggested that brand competition will now follow the European path. "Brands will compete with private labels and fight against copies," said Alexey Popovichev. “Given that many of the major advertisers who have remained in the market have stopped their marketing communications since spring this year, the link between consumers and brands is starting to break down. Parallel imports are entering the market, prices are not going down as we were assured and, on top of that, counterfeit products are entering the market under the guise of parallel imports.

The session was attended by Tatiana Nikitina, Head of Advertising Control and Unfair Competition Department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, Boris Omelnitsky, President of Association for Development of Interactive Advertising, Elena Leonova, President of the Russian Marketing Services Association (RAMU), CEO of Progression Group, Alexey Vyazovtsev, Chairman of AKAR's Promotion Industry Committee and Development Director of Alter Ego Promotion OOO, Marina Mishunkina, Co-Chair of AKAR's Publishers Committee and First Deputy CEO of Arguments and Facts.

The participants discussed new approaches to communications, effective promotion strategies for advertisers from various segments of the economy, and opportunities for the industry in the context of large-scale technology import substitution. The experts talked about market trends and working promotional tools, assessed the changed advertiser landscape, and shared their forecasts for the future. 

Press Service, EXPOCENTRE AO