James McDonald

28 April 2022 WARC’s Director of Data, Intelligence & Forecasting digs deeper into the extraordinary 2021 growth figures revealed in yesterday’s AA/WARC Expenditure Report.
24 September 2020 New research by WARC Data shows that brands have invested more money in e-commerce platforms and less in conventional media in the months following the COVID-19 outbreak. This is demonstrative of a pivot to lower-funnel tactics in the wake of the outbreak says James McDonald, Head of Data Content, WARC.
02 June 2020 COVID-19 has upended adspend forecasts. Here, James McDonald, WARC Data's managing editor, explains some of the reasoning behind the revised outlook presented in the latest Global Ad Trends report.
30 April 2020 COVID-19 has upended adspend forecasts. Here, James McDonald, WARC Data’s managing editor, explains the reasoning behind the revised outlook presented in the latest AA/WARC Expenditure Report.
01 April 2020 WARC Data's Managing Editor delves into the story behind the impact COVID-19 is having on advertising spending and consumer purchasing – with FMCG an area key to the full picture.
04 March 2020 James McDonald, Managing Editor, WARC Data, provides three scenarios in which the spread of the COVID-19 virus may potentially impact purchasing, media consumption and advertising investment. 
26 September 2019 Ahead of the relaunch of WARC’s data product on Tuesday 1 st October, James McDonald, Managing Editor of WARC Data, explains why ad investment needs to work harder in the media mix.
21 August 2019 WARC’s latest Global Ad Trends has found that cinema growth will outpace the global ad market this year, while UK admissions were at a record high in 2018. Netflix’s rise appears to have had little impact on the allure of the silver screen, writes WARC Data's Managing Editor, James McDonald.
02 July 2019 Social media ad growth halved over the year to end-March 2019, according to WARC’s latest Global Ad Trends . Facebook is looking to diversify its revenue model to guard against a rising tide of consumer distrust and poor monetisation of its international users, says WARC Data's managing editor James McDonald.
30 April 2019 UK advertising spend rose 6.3% to reach £23.6bn in 2018, marking the ninth consecutive year of industry growth and highest annual total since monitoring began. The results follow a rise of 5.7% during the fourth quarter of last year, with adspend reaching £6.5bn – once again, a new high.
25 March 2019 WARC’s latest Global Ad Trends found that the internet ad market is in decline beyond the Google and Facebook duopoly. While there is little sign that the pair’s growth will record a significant slowdown in the coming years, several potential headwinds may shape future fortunes, says WARC Data editor James McDonald.
21 February 2019 WARC’s latest Global Ad Trends, a monthly report which uses the latest evidence to highlight trends in media investment, has found that the internet ad market is in decline beyond the Google and Facebook ‘duopoly’.
28 January 2019 WARC’s latest Global Ad Trends, a monthly report which uses empirical evidence to summarise media trends in advertising, has found that mobile ad formats will attract more money than TV across key markets this year, despite practitioner uncertainty around viewability, ROI and brand safety, and growing consumer privacy concerns.
26 April 2017 Mobile’s share of total UK internet adspend rose to over a third last year, and mobile accounted for 99% of new online ad money in 2016, according to the latest results from the AA/WARC Expenditure Report, released this week.
24 April 2017 TV’s share of total UK advertising expenditure has held steady at 25% over the last decade, despite the rise of online advertising, and TV can still be regarded as the largest ad medium in the UK, according to the latest results from the AA/WARC Expenditure Report, released today.
02 August 2016 Total UK advertising expenditure is forecast to rise 4.2% this year, with the growth rate easing to +3.8% in 2017, according to the latest results from the AA/Warc Expenditure Report, released this week.
29 April 2016 Advertising revenues for the UK’s national newsbrands fell 11% to £1.2bn in 2015, £150m lower than a year earlier owing entirely to losses in print business, according to the latest results from the AA/Warc UK Expenditure Report, released this week.
28 April 2016 UK advertising expenditure grew at its strongest rate since 2010 last year, with total adspend of £20.1bn marking a 7.5% rise from 2014, according to the latest results from the AA/Warc UK Expenditure Report, released this week.
22 March 2016 Our preliminary estimate for global mobile advertising spend in 2015 stands at $48bn, around 30% of all internet adspend that year. Incredibly, mobile's share has more than doubled in just two years; a key indicator of the medium's meteoric rise.
05 February 2016 UK advertising expenditure for desktop internet is estimated to have grown 2.6% year-on-year to £5.7bn in 2015, well behind the headline internet growth rate of 13.5%, according to the latest results from the AA/Warc UK Expenditure Report, released this week.
22 December 2015 We estimate global advertising spend (based on 12 major markets) increased by 2.2% in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms in 2015. This is mildly below our previous expectations in July (-0.1pp). A further rise, of 4.4%, is forecast next year.
29 January 2015 The consumables sector is set to account for the greatest category share of UK advertising spend in 2015, according to the latest data from the AA/Warc Expenditure Report . The sector – comprising cosmetics & toiletries, food, drink, household FMCG, pharmaceuticals and tobacco – should take around 23% of total adspend, with ad revenues in excess of £2.4bn. This follows anticipated growth of 1.5% for the category in 2015, following a rise of 0.6% last year.
26 January 2015 UK recruitment adspend has now shown year-on-year growth in the last four quarters, and is expected to post continuous growth throughout the forecast period to end-Q3 2016, according to the latest data from the Advertising Association/Warc Expenditure Report .
23 January 2015 UK advertising expenditure is forecast to total £19.6bn in 2015, according to the latest data from the Advertising Association/Warc Expenditure Report, released this week. This is comfortably the largest total ever recorded, and represents a 5.7% annual increase from 2014. Receipts for 2014 are expected to total approximately £18.5bn, following growth of 5.8% from 2013. These rises also represent the best consecutive growth period since the millennium.
18 December 2014 Last week we released our International Ad Forecast for December, outlining expectations for advertising expenditure in 12 key markets across 2014 and 2015. We anticipate growth in global adspend of 4.8% in 2015, a downgrade of 0.5pp since our last forecast in June. This follows expected growth of 5.5% in 2014, which is on a par with our previous outlook.