Digital Eclipsing Traditional AdEx

THE GREAT REALLOCATION: EVERY RUPEE OF GROWTH CAME FROM DIGITAL
Indian AdEx in 2025 continued to surprise. Not with exuberant growth, but with its ability to hold ground and progress steadily in an environment marked by macroeconomic uncertainty, regulatory disruptions and cautious advertiser sentiment.

At the total AdEx level, growth stood at 7% in 2025, taking the Indian advertising market to Rs 115,291 Crores (legacy definition) or by 12% to Rs 155,105 Crores (new expanded definition), adding incremental revenue of Rs 7,311 Crores (legacy) or Rs 16,156 Crores (new) over the previous year. While this growth rate is modest when compared to the high-growth years of the past decade, it once again underlines the resilience of the Indian advertising ecosystem.

Behind this aggregate number lies a fundamental structural reality that has been understated in prior PMAR reports: India has already crossed into majority-Digital advertising.

Two Ways to See India’s ADEX:

Legacy AdEx Definition (Continuity View):
Traditional AdEx declined by Rs 739 Crores while Digital AdEx grew by Rs 8,050 Crores, more than accounting for all net market growth. Under this lens, Digital reached 46% share in 2025, up from 42% in 2024. This reinforces a fundamental shift in how advertisers allocate budgets—from broad-based expansion across media to selective, channel-driven investment.

New AdEx Definition (Expanded Reality View):
When we include Quick Commerce advertising (Rs 4,000 Crores) and MSME Digital spends (Rs 35,814 Crores)—both of which are material, measurable, and Digital-first—total Digital AdEx in 2025 reached Rs 93,156 Crores, representing 60% share of the expanded Rs 155,105 Crores advertising economy. Traditional media contributed Rs 61,949 Crores (40% share).

Under the new definition:

• Digital grew from 55% share (2024) → 60% share (2025)
• Traditional declined from 45% share (2024) → 40% share (2025)

India is not ‘approaching’ a Digital majority—it has already arrived.

Key Insight:
Over the last decade, Traditional’s share has fallen from 85% (2016, legacy definition) → 54% (2025, legacy) or 40% (2025, new). Digital has risen from 15% (2016) → 46% (2025, legacy) or 60% (2025, new).

Under the expanded definition, India crossed Digital majority in 2024 and is now at 60% Digital share—a threshold most developed markets took another decade to reach.

Digital vs Traditional: Structure of the Market

Legacy AdEx Lens (Continuity with PMAR 2025):
In 2025, Traditional media (TV, Print, Radio, Cinema, OOH) together declined from Rs62,688 Crores in 2024 to Rs61,949 Crores, a -1% and a 4-point share erosion from 58% to 54% on the legacy AdEx definition. This marks the first absolute decline in Traditional AdEx in the post-pandemic recovery phase.

Digital media, by contrast, increased from Rs 45,292 Crores to Rs 53342 Crores, delivering 18% growth and lifting its share from 42% to 46% in a single year. The 2025 data clearly shows that Digital is now the sole growth engine of Indian advertising, with Traditional media collectively subtracting from market growth.

New AdEx Lens (Ground Reality):
When we incorporate Quick Commerce advertising (Rs 4,000 Crores, up 202% YoY) and MSME Digital spends (Rs 35,814 Crores, up 21% YoY), the picture becomes starker:

• Total Digital AdEx: Rs 93,156 Crores (60% share), up 22% from Rs 76,261 Crores in 2024
• Traditional AdEx: Rs 61,949 Crores (40% share), down -1% from Rs 62,688 Crores in 2024

India is not at the threshold of Digital majority—it crossed that threshold in 2024 (55%) and is now operating as a majority-Digital advertising market at 60% share.

This is not a forecast. It is the 2025 reality.

Why This Matters:
For the first time, PMAR explicitly reports that the vast majority of India’s incremental advertising investment, advertiser entry, and platform innovation is happening in Digital ecosystems—not just the ‘core Digital’ measured historically (Search, Social, Video, Display, Ecommerce), but also in Quick Commerce platforms (Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart) and MSME-focused advertising.

Expanding Digital AdEx Scope: Q-Comm & MSME Spends
Beginning with the estimation of 2025 Actuals, we have expanded the Digital AdEx scope to explicitly include advertising spends on Quick Commerce (Q-Comm) platforms and by MSME advertisers. In today’s media environment, both segments represent meaningful and fast-growing contributors to digital advertising volumes.

Historically, PMAR reporting did not publish these spends separately within Digital AdEx. This is the first year that Q-Comm share of AdEx and digital spends by MSMEs have been systematically estimated and incorporated. For like-to-like comparison, corresponding estimates have also been developed retrospectively for 2023 and 2024.

Key Insights:

• Q-Comm has scaled explosively from Rs 300 Crores (2023) to Rs 4,000 Crores (2025), reflecting rapid platform expansion and heavy reliance on digital customer acquisition. Platforms like Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart are seeing spends at rapidly growing levels.
• MSME digital spends now exceed Rs 35,000 Crores, representing a broad base of small and medium advertisers using digital platforms for targeted, performance-led advertising. This is 38% of Digital AdEx—a segment larger than all of Print or nearly as large as Linear TV.
• Total Digital (expanded view) reached Rs 93,156 Crores in 2025, growing 22% YoY and representing 60% of total Indian advertising under the new definition.

Concentration of Growth & Advertiser Behaviour
The incremental Rs 7,311 Crores (legacy definition) / Rs 16,156 Crores (new definition) in 2025 was not driven by a broad base of new advertisers but by higher spends from existing, typically larger advertisers, especially on Digital platforms. The simultaneous decline in Traditional AdEx and rise in Digital suggests that budgets are being reallocated, rather than total marketing investment being aggressively scaled up.

This pattern aligns with heightened emphasis on ROI, measurability, and budget discipline. As a result, advertisers are prioritising channels that offer clearer attribution and performance signals, particularly:

• Performance-led Digital (Search, Social, Ecommerce)
• Retail Media and Q-Comm platforms
• Highly targeted formats with transparent measurement

Strategic Insight: A Market in Maturity Transition
The evidence indicates that India is entering an early maturity phase: absolute spends are still rising, but growth rates are normalising, and capital is being deployed with greater discipline. This pattern mirrors early maturity cycles in more developed markets, where the focus shifts from ‘how much to spend’ to ‘how well to allocate.’

For advertisers, this has four implications:

• Market share gains will increasingly come from allocation efficiency, not spend escalation.
• Weak or undifferentiated media strategies will underperform, even at higher spend levels.
• Clear, evidence-backed channel roles must replace legacy, habit-driven plans.
• Strategic planning capability—the ability to design systems of media rather than isolated buys—will become a core competitive advantage.