A significant number of companies operates in the Greek advertising market. The sector includes Advertising agencies, Media Specialists, Outdoor Advertising operators and Screen Advertising agencies.
Most businesses concerned are exclusively engaged in advertising activities, while some companies are active in other areas, such as sales promotion, public relations etc.
Large foreign multinational advertising networks currently operate in the advertising industry (through subsidiaries or controlled companies).
Especially in the period 2008-2014, the advertising expenditure in Greece fell at an average annual rate of -13.3%. In 2014 the advertising expenditure registered a cumulative fall of 57.4% compared to 2008.
In particular, in 2016 it is estimated that the advertising market increased by 6.3% while in 2017 it remained almost stable. In 2018 it showed an increase of 3.9% and in 2019 the increase was even greater and amounted to 4.5%.
According to the latest (January 2022) EDEE FORECOMM_S survey of communications budgets (conducted by Abacus Research). it is observed that, the appearance of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 negatively affected the course of the sector, which was going upwards. However, from the very first quarter of 2021, it is estimated that the sector is recovering lost ground and returning to positive rates of change.
The improvement of the macroeconomic environment of the country in the three years 2017-2019 (GDP increase, unemployment reduction, exit from the memorandums) positively affected the entire domestic advertising market, which showed an upward trend in the two years 2018-2019, with an average annual rate of 4%.
The appearance of the Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020, reversed the upward trend and negatively affected the market under review. It is estimated that the total domestic advertising expenditure showed a fall of 8.5% in 2020 compared to 2019. However, it should be emphasized that some sector, mainly of large size, showed resilience and even managed to increase their total sales in 2020.
The gradual normalization of the market from the consequences of the global health crisis, as early as 2021, put the advertising market back on a positive track. The advertising sector (in value) is estimated to have registered an annual increase of 15.3%. This significant rise is primarily due to the increase recorded by the television advertising sector, which has accompanied the course of the overall advertising market. The value of TV advertising has accounted for 60% of total advertising expenditure in recent years. As regards 2022 a further rise of the market is expected.