Insights on the Hungarian online advertising market, including penetration rate, online ad spend, most important media owners and sales houses, most visited Hungarian websites, biggest digital agencies, a list of public data concerning the market, adservers etc.

1. Hungarian Online Advertising Market Overview
13 April 2009
by Rabbit
Questions & Answers
1. How much is the internet penetration rate in your country? How many internet users
does this mean daily/weekly/monthly?
Internet penetration rate is 46% in Hungary (source: NRC/TNS), which means 2,8 million
users a day, 4,2 million users a week and 4,6 million users a month (source: Webaudit).
2. What is the share of online ad spend within the overall advertising spending? What is
the share of display, search, listing and email ads within online ad spend?
In 2008 Hungarian online ad spend was 21.816 billion HUF, which accounts for 10.00% of the
whole advertising cake, according to IAB Hungary Adex 2008. Within online ad spend the
share of display ads is 63%, listing is 16%, email is 4% and paid search is 17%. Fastest growing
segment was search engine advertising, which was increased by 242.36% in 2008.
3. Which are the main media owners/sales houses/ad networks and the most visited
websites in your country? Is the online market dominated by the biggest players or smaller
and medium players are able to succeed?
The 3 biggest players of the Hungarian online market are Origo, CEMP (Index) and Sanoma.
Their share of the overall online ad spend is approx. 45%, within the display segment is
approx. 65%. Beside them some mid-size players could succeed, e.g. Adaptive Media and
Evo Media, that managed to realize the same share in ad revenues as in reaching the
Hungarian users.
The Top 30 most visited Hungarian sites:
Site UU (000) RCH%
1 iWiW 2,664 68.64
2 origo 2,468 63.59
3 Freemail 1,973 50.83
4 Index.hu 1,791 46.15
5 Startlap cover page 1,133 29.2
6 PORT.hu 1,126 29.01
7 Nők Lapja c@fe 1,069 27.54
8 Vatera Aukció 1,025 26.4
9 Videa.hu 987 25.43
10 myVIP 942 24.26
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2. 11 HotDog.hu 888 22.88
12 Figyelő Net 813 20.94
13 Freeblog.hu 801 20.63
14 Expressz.hu 754 19.44
15 teszvesz.hu aukció 726 18.69
16 Velvet oldalak 675 17.39
17 Blikk.hu 643 16.57
18 Használtautó.hu 617 15.89
19 SZTAKI Szótár 603 15.55
20 IndaVideó 591 15.24
21 SG.hu Informatika Tudomány 581 14.98
22 Prohardver Online 558 14.39
23 TotalCar.hu 519 13.38
24 Story online 518 13.34
25 HáziPatika.com 516 13.29
26 femina.hu 507 13.07
27 Profession.hu 503 12.95
28 RTLKlub.hu 498 12.82
29 Ok.hu 480 12.36
30 Menetrendek.hu 479 12.35
Source: webAUDIENCE, 15+ internet population, January 2009 (monthly UU & reach)
4. Which are the biggest agencies on your online market; international networks or local
agencies are more significant?
eMission (WPP / GroupM), Fastbridge (IPG / Magna), OMD Digital (OMG) and kirowski (Aegis
/ Isobar) are the biggest international agencies that have their online firms or divisions in
Hungary. Among independent agencies Arcus and Carnation are the most important. Market
share and client list of the digital agencies are not public.
5. Which are the main sources of publicly available data concerning your local online
market?
Audited site measurement data on most visited sites is available on webaudit.hu,
opa.gemius.hu or audience.gemius.hu. Information on ad spend is published as a news
release by TNS MI, MRSZ and IAB Hungary (prior is rate card price, ulterior two are net price
data) once in a year. Detailed data on Hungarian online advertising market is only available
at my blog, rabbitblog.hu with the permission of TNS MI.
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3. 6. What kind of online audience measurement solutions are generally accepted? (Which
analyzing and/or planning softwares are attached to them?)
Announcement of an online audience measurement tender is in progress. There are two
competitors right now: gemius/Ipsos Audience (Gemius + Szonda Ipsos) and webAUDIENCE
(Medián + GfK), and Nielsen is supposed to join the contest. gIA data is available via
gemiusExplorer, while wA data could be analyzed within MEMRI. (Planning module of
MEMRI is not yet finished.)
7. Which ad servers are widely spread and mostly accepted?
Most media owners use Adverticum, an ad server solution developed domestically (e.g.
Origo, Sanoma, Adaptive Media, Evo Media), however, Gemius also started its expansion on
the Hungarian market (e.g. CEMP). Smart is a new player on the market, which has deals
with Axel Springer and Inform Media. On the agency side, Gemius, Adverticum and
DoubleClick are the most widely used ad servers.
8. Do local marketers frequently use more innovative solutions, such as social media, video
and mobile advertising (beyond sms or mms), or behavioral targeting?
None of these solutions have yet been matured on the Hungarian market, their usage is
incidental and not prevalent. There aren’t any possibilities for behavioral targeting, unless
agency ad server is capable doing it. On iWiW, the most visited Hungarian site, Facebook-like
applications will be launched in April, which is opening new online marketing possibilities.
9. Are affiliate networks thriving in your country? How much is the market share of
affiliate solutions within the overall online ad spend?
There aren’t any affiliate networks in Hungary, but smaller, independent affiliate programs
exist. Their market share is unremarkable.
10. What is the usual rate of discounts provided by the media owners?
Discounts are various and based on annual contracts. Rate of volume discount is usually 20-
40%, but could be a decent 50% as well (15% agency commission is common).
11. What are the usual deadlines, e.g. for creating a tactical media plan?
We can create a media plan in 2 hours, but at least 2 or 3 days is needed for proper planning.
12. Are the typical roles – planning, buying, monitoring – separated in agencies in your
country? Does one person manage the overall campaign or there are more people, e.g.
media planner, media buyer, assistant?
It depends on the actual agency. At bigger agencies roles are getting separated, usually there
are media planners, media buyers and campaign managers. At smaller agencies a media
planner is in charge of planning, buying, managing the ad server and creating delivery
reports.
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4. 13. Is it usual to go to media parties, getting presents and making friends among
colleagues? Are conditions friendly disposed?
Main media owners usually organize events, such as parties, gokarting, Sherlock Holmes
investigating, tank driving… Sometimes a media buyer who realizes the most ad spend on a
portfolio receives a present, e.g. a journey. But it’s quite rare. Giving presents for holidays is
in fashion, but these gifts aren’t expensive things. It could be weird for a new entrant that
people greet each other with a kiss on the face without knowing each other at all! And it
seems that everybody is in great relationship with one another.
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