Marketing industry worth more than food and accommodation to Australian economy claims new report
The Communications Council has claimed the advertising industry is worth almost as much to the Australian economy as the internet and digital industries, using figures generated in a new report by Deloitte.
The report, Advertising Pays: the economic, employment and business value of advertising, says while direct spending on advertising is worth just $12.6bn annually, the flow on effect of advertising is worth more than $40bn and is larger than the size of the accommodation and food services industry, or 2.5% of GDP.
Advertising employment supply chain means more than 200,000 benefit from advertising
The report suggests that while only 56,000 people are directly employed in the industry, the flow on effect to other parts of the economy through supply chain support and ancillary services not connected with the creation of ads means that more than 200,000 have their employment supported by the industry in some way.
By taking into account “…other parts of the economy through supply chain support and ancillary services not connected with the creation of ads…” it is in fact double counting this extended reach with other industries. In other words, to say this extended economy is dependent on ad spend is dubious at best and draws a very long bow when arriving at the $40b figure. Using the reports logic, why stop there, why not extend advertising’s reach to every product or service purchased? That should push the ad industry’s value towards $500b.