Global Ad Trends: State of The Industry 2020/21

This report summarises the latest research from WARC's Data platform, with a focus on advertising investment, media consumption, and cost inflation this year and next. Key findings include: 
  • It will take at least two years to fully recover, after the events of 2020 cut $63bn from the global advertising economy. Adspend is set to decline by 10.2% worldwide this year, a 2.1pp downgrade from our May forecast. Excluding US election campaigning, adspend is set to fall by 11.0% – $68.3bn – to $552.3bn this year.
  • This year’s ad recession is worse than the last in absolute terms. Further, after accounting for inflation and exchange rates, real ad market decline is double that of 2009. Traditional media had their worst year on record, and online failed to...

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