Hasta La Creative!

It was a tradition of China’s ad world: At the end of state broadcasting behemoth CCTV’s annual auction for ad airtime, officials announced a total sales figure, a number seen as a gauge of China’s economic success. Every time, the numbers grew, by as much as 18.5% year-on-year. In 2012, the one-day event raked in a record $2.5 billion.

The auction for 2015 prime-time airtime took place Tuesday, but for a second year in a row, CCTV released no triumphant final sales tally. (The broadcaster said it was more than last year, but that didn’t help, since that figure wasn’t released either.)

So what’s the takeaway? Part of the story is that CCTV has been pre-selling ahead of the auction, as it explained in a news release.

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