The digital segment in the CEE, 2022

Online has been the most thriving segment, where the lockdowns only accelerated the growth – even though this increase is continuing, it appeared to slow down in 2022. This was the first year, when in the overall, average and country level spendings it didn’t show significant gain. The overall spending is near 4.94 billion euro, which means a 3% growth compared to 2021, and this is still over the whole market average of 2%. This slight increase also means that the digital segment kept last year’s share of 51% in the overall spending.

It's the first time that in some countries the share of online slightly decreased compared to previous year: in case of Poland, OOH and radio snatched away percentages from both online and TV, similarly in Latvia, and in Estonia it was radio and print. The main trends in the digital segment are still standing though: weCAN experts reported that the majority of online spendings still go global giants, but as Márta Hornai, Director of Media Services at Café Communication, Hungary put it: “Global players and solutions are setting the pace for the online media market. Local players are looking for content and data solutions to keep advertisers interested. The trend points towards centralisation: advertisers, agency networks and sales houses tend to set up service centres and manage activities centrally. Declining local online spending is concentrating budgets on better performing sales houses in Hungary.” The video format is getting more and more prominent, TikTok and the short format videos are a defining direction in content production, for advertisers using this is no longer an option but a must. Mobile usage is also prominent, now being more than half of devices that are used for accessing internet. In case of Ukraine, progress happened due to the Russian aggression: “Ukrainians mostly carried smartphones as their source of information. This led to even more mobile consumption and accelerated digital growth. According to agency estimate, around 91% of Ukrainians now use the Internet. The need for rapid news consumption led to the rise of messaging apps such as Telegram and Viber.” – wrote Olha Sikorska, Head of Media Research, Initiative Ukraine. E-commerce along with other digital solutions such as online (food) delivery, digital media downloads and subscriptions are thriving, and physical solutions combined with digital technologies are also appearing at a fast pace, such as click and collect, buy in store - deliver at home, cashier free shopping, location-based push notifications, augmented and virtual reality etc. – as our Romanian and Slovenian experts reported. 2022 brought about a solution – the launch of Chat GPT in November 2022 – which amplified the importance of AI technologies, these since have revolutionised the advertising industry, even in this short period. Discussions surround this solution about its responsible usage, but just like the whole industry, weCAN agencies are experimenting with it, using AI solutions in their campaigns.