Shanghai Unveils Three-Year Advertising Plan Targeting RMB480 Billion Industry Scale by 2028

The Shanghai Municipal Market Regulation Administration has issued the "Shanghai Action Plan for Expanding and Upgrading the Advertising Industry (2026-2028)". According to the plan, by 2028 the advertising industry will achieve notable results in high-quality development, with industry scale surpassing RMB480 billion and maintaining its leading position nationwide. High-caliber business entities are expected to cluster further, with the cultivation of six leading enterprises at the RMB10 billion level and 350 backbone enterprises at the RMB100 million level. The agglomeration capacity of industrial parks will be strengthened, with the construction of a number of digital advertising industrial parks featuring complete functions, sound ecosystems, and distinctive characteristics. The penetration of artificial intelligence technology across the full advertising chain will deepen, with 50 professionally leading advertising intelligent agents to be developed. Creative planning capabilities will be enhanced through the cultivation of creative masters and agencies with domestic and international influence. The advertising industry will deepen integration with advanced manufacturing, promoting the transformation from Chinese products to Chinese brands. International service capabilities will be reinforced by fostering two to three local advertising groups with global competitiveness. The industry's development environment will be further optimized, ensuring a favorable business climate and orderly market regulation.

The plan specifies a digital-intelligent transformation initiative, leveraging Shanghai's strengths as a science and technology innovation center to accelerate the application of big data, blockchain, internet of things, and artificial intelligence across the entire advertising chain, including creative design, content production, marketing agency, media placement, performance monitoring, and content review. It supports the development of a range of technologically advanced, highly specialized advertising intelligent agents and AI-collaborative business scenarios to upgrade the industry's technology foundation. The plan promotes the construction of AI-plus-advertising public service platforms and AI advertising pilot bases to provide technical support for small and medium-sized digital advertising enterprises. It also encourages third-party technical service institutions to utilize computing power, models, and language corpus resources, ensuring essential support for advertising content production and distribution.