A Glance to Different Types of Advertising in Hong Kong
As a homegrown Hong Kong-based marketing company, we know a fair deal about the different types of advertising methods popular in Hong Kong.
So, this article sheds light upon that knowledge — that’s to say, in this article, we’re uncovering the different types of advertising in Hong Kong. Let’s dive in!
1. Television Advertisement
Although the world may have shifted away from cable television, television ads have a great deal of importance in Hong Kong.
In fact, according to Admango’s 2020 media share report, television ads had a 29% market share, which was bigger than all other mediums of advertisement, including newspaper ads, mobile ads, and social media ads.
While the numbers may have shifted a tad bit in recent years (especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic), advertisers and audiences both still love television ads even today.
There are a couple of factors that can be attributed to the popularity of TV ads, including
- There’s a whopping 94.2% television penetration rate in Hong Kong.
- Presently, Hong Kong’s population is 7.35 million — out of this number, almost 6.5 million people are categorized as TV audiences.
- There are more than 2.5 million televisions in use in Hong Kong. Meaning that there’s one television for almost 2.8 customers.
2. Social Media Advertising
Social media ads are significantly growing in Hong Kong, mainly due to the change in patterns of content consumption during the pandemic (and younger customers preferring to use social media over other media platforms).
In fact, studies report that in 2023, social media ad spending increased by 12% in Hong Kong, which was higher than any other category in that specific year, including mobile and online advertising.
However, even before the pandemic, social media advertising had a considerable role to play, with them having a whopping 14% of the market share.
Aside from the pandemic, there are other factors at play here as well, including the fact that out of the total Hong Kong population (presently reported at 7.35 million), more than 6.73 million of them are active social media users, and they spend an average of two hours a day on social media platforms.
3. Mobile Advertising
Just for some context before we begin: Mobile advertising refers to the ads done on mobile devices like phones and tablets. These go beyond the spectrum of just social media and include other types of ads you see on mobile devices.
If TV ads rank first and social media ads rank second in the race of popular advertisement types in Hong Kong, mobile ads come in at a solid third, winning the spot with 22% of the market share.
The reason why it’s ranked in the third place and not the second is that the popularity of social media ads (via ad spend) is steadily increasing (at 12%), whereas the ad spend of mobile ads has only increased by 7% in the third quarter of 2023 in Hong Kong.
4. Print Advertising
By print advertising, we mean newspaper and magazine ads — both of these advertising activities have a combined market share of 14% in Hong Kong.
According to different sources, the ad spend for print advertising is estimated to be anywhere between US $73.27 million and US $92.86 million in 2024.
However, regardless of how lucrative print advertising may look right now, the market is projected to decline by -3% as more and more users prefer to consume content digitally.
In fact, compared to other mediums like TV, which have a market penetration rate of 94.2%, the number of people who’ll consume content via print advertising is only going to be 2.06 million users — and that too in 2029, when Hong Kong’s projected population is going to be almost 8 million, making it a penetration rate of just 26%.
5. Outdoor Advertising
According to Admango’s media share report, outdoor advertising accounted for a 10% market share.
Experts suggest that while there are rumors of offline marketing sources (such as outdoor advertising) being dead, that’s anything but the case. The only thing that’s changed is the way of measuring the effectiveness of these ads.
Advertisers have gone one step ahead and started leveraging 3D boards, dynamic ads, and personalized content to stay more relevant to the current market’s content preferences.
In fact, since the adoption of AI is all hype these days, advertisers have started implementing these AI technologies to create engaging billboards and outdoor ads as well.
Oh, and also, just to stress the importance and the future impact of outdoor ads, Hong Kong’s outdoor ad spend budget is expected to reach US $630 million in 2024, which is far higher than other alternatives like print media.
6. Other Types of Advertising
While the above-mentioned ads take a majority of the market share, there are other types of advertising very prevalent in Hong Kong even today, such as:
- Event/sponsorship advertising
- Direct-mail advertising
- Desktop advertising
- Cinema advertising
- Transit advertising
- Radio advertising
The effectiveness and market share of all these advertisements change based on the industry you belong to, the way you execute your ads, the popularity of these advertisement types, etc. An important thing to consider is China’s restrictive network as well. Be sure to use a VPN with servers both in and outside of China to test that your ads are working properly within Chinese networks.
Manage Your Advertising Strategy with SEO Hero
We previously discovered that social media advertising and mobile advertising are steadily gaining popularity, and it’d no doubt be a smart strategy to leverage these ads for your business, too.
If you’d like to get started today, we offer online advertising and marketing services — including SEO services (local and international), copywriting services, and website development services.
We’re one of the top advertising agencies in Hong Kong to offer this wide range of services, and if you’d like to see how we can help your brand (or if you have any other questions), you can get in touch anytime!
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Kelly Moser is the co-founder and editor at Home & Jet, a digital magazine for the modern era. She’s also the content manager at Login Lockdown, covering the latest trends in tech, business and security. Kelly is an expert in freelance writing and content marketing for SaaS, Fintech, and ecommerce startups.