A new leader has emerged in the Russian advertising market. In the first half of 2026, RWB — the combined company of Wildberries and Russ — spent the most on TV, outdoor advertising, radio, and print. Its budget grew by 64% and reached 27 billion rubles.
Sber, which held the top spot for several years, dropped to second place with 20.6 billion rubles. Ozon rose to third position with 16.5 billion, and Alfa-Bank to fourth with 14 billion. VTB rounds out the top five, having reduced its spending by 8% to 12.5 billion rubles.
At the same time, the entire top 20 advertisers began to increase their offline budgets noticeably slower. Over six months, they grew by 24% to 195 billion rubles, whereas a year earlier, growth reached 60%. This means the pace has slowed by more than 2.5 times.
One of the reasons is that money is increasingly moving online. This is especially noticeable with Yandex: the company reduced its offline spending by 31% to 6.6 billion rubles, explaining this by the higher measurable effectiveness of digital channels.
However, certain categories continue to sharply increase traditional advertising. Manufacturers of sports goods increased spending by 107%, computer equipment and software by 88%, and internet services by 65%. Education, household appliances, and insurance, on the other hand, cut their budgets by about a third.
As a result, offline advertising in Russia is still growing in monetary terms, but its role is changing: for some companies, it remains a way to massively increase brand awareness, while others are increasingly shifting budgets to where results can be more precisely measured in clicks, leads, and sales.