Dentsu Aegis Network’s latest advertising spend forecasts, based on data from 59 markets, predicts that global ad spend will grow by 3.9% in 2020, up from 2.9% in 2019. With the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, UEFA European Football Championships and the US Presidential elections all taking place in 2020, events will be a significant driver of increased ad spend around the world as advertisers look to capitalise on huge global audiences.
However the outlook for certain individual markets is more mixed with several Western European markets like Italy, Germany and Spain all expected to see a decline in advertising spend in 2020 and 2021.
“On a positive note the UK is forecasting growth in ad spend of 6% in 2020, although this figure was revised down by -0.6% following a disappointing year economically in 2019 but it will be interesting to see how Brexit impacts further predictions, particularly considering the sizeable per centage of Irish ad spend budgets which originate in the UK. Digital remains the dominate force in ad spend across both the UK and Ireland which reflects the digital maturity of both countries and the global trends,” says Lorraine Kinsella, head of Amplifi at Dentsu Aegis Network Ireland.
“In Ireland our forecasted position for 2020 is currently 4.2% growth, an increase of €36.6mi. Euro2020 and Olympics are both huge sporting events in 2020 which should drive a modest increase year-on-year in ad spend – particularly with Dublin being a host city for Euro2020 games. These sporting events to a smaller degree coupled with more sizeable further digital growth – predominately paid search, social media, video and Digital OOH – will drive the 2020 position,” she says.
The research also shows that, globally, digital will continue to power ad spend growth in 2020 and is forecast to grow 10.5%. Mobile and video are fuelling this increase within digital and both are forecast to see double-digit growth at 16.5% and 14.6% respectively. 2020 will also be the year we see mobile overtake TV as a share of global ad spend. Digital is also breathing new life into traditional formats, with television and radio showing signs of recovery in 2020 as the impact of voice assistants and addressable TV grows, she says.
