The weCAN Ranking 2022

The immediate effects of the COVID-pandemic and the following economic measures in 2020 put such a strain on the economy, that economic setback, paired with high levels of loss on the advertising market was unavoidable. In 2021, however, many sectors bounced back successfully, and advertisers found their courage for spending, with digital keeping on propelling most of the growth.

The weCAN Ranking, weCAN’s unique index that determines individual ad markets’ performance compared to that of the country’s entire economy, reflects the wider economic and industry trends. Last year, most countries’ weCAN ranking value decreased because in 2020, the advertising industry suffered a proportionally greater blow than the economy as a whole. By contrast, in 2021, all economies and advertising markets grew in the region, but the latter was expanding more dynamically. As a result, the value of the majority of markets increased in 2022’s ranking. 

The methodology of the weCAN Ranking

The weCAN Ranking is an index that shows the percentage of the ad spending per capita within a country’s nominal GDP. (The advertising spending data used in the CANnual Report and the weCAN Ranking consists of the TV, radio, print and OOH net spending figures, measured locally and converted into Euro – and the digital net ad spending measured by local IAB chapters or leading advertising associations, also converted into Euro.) We calculated both baseline data (GDP per capita and ad spending per capita) using the number of population older than 14 to ensure that the basis of the calculation only includes advertising target groups with independent purchasing power. weCAN Ranking reveals whether the advertising market as an economic sector is stronger or weaker than what the overall economic performance of a country would suggest.

Three out of the four exceptions are the front-runners of our list. They have been guarding their top3 places since 2018, and their placement has not changed for two years. Ukraine’s ranking value stagnated (compared to last year), and it is followed by the Czech Republic and Hungary, where the weCAN Ranking value slightly decreased. This indicates that the pace of their ad market expansion could not keep up with the growth-rate of the nominal GDP. Agencies facing labor shortage and growing labor costs can be one of the reasons.

Still in the first half, but behind the definite front-runners are Poland, Slovakia, Serbia and Croatia. This is the only section where anything changed in the order of places within the list (compared to 2020). Croatia, the only country beside the Czech Republic and Hungary with a decreasing value, slid back two places, while Slovakia advanced two.

It is important to note that almost all countries with the most-developed digital markets in the region is placed in the first half of the ranking, while the majority of strong TV-markets in the second half. That is, the strongest ad markets in the region are the ones with a booming digital segment.
The entirety of the second half of the ranking kept their position of last year. Bulgaria, Slovenia, Lithuania and Estonia form the second half of the mid-field. All four countries visibly increased their weCAN Ranking indices.

The tail-enders of the list are perfectly mirroring the front-runners: Latvia, Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina have shared the bottom placements since 2017, and have been in this order since 2020. Their market performances are not to be underestimated, though: both in Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, ad markets outperformed the pace of expansion of the economy in nominal terms in 2021.