By Antoinette Siu • December 8, 2023 • 3 min read •
Join us as we explore industry trends across the media, media buying, and marketing sectors as we wrap up an eventful year and gear up for the 2024. More from the series →
Get ready for a major year in advertising with the U.S. presidential election driving political spending. Industry experts anticipate an increased focus on retail media, digital, sports, and connected TV, all playing a crucial role in fueling the ad economy.
During this week, Dentsu, GroupM, IPG’s Magna rolled out their 2024 advertising predictions and forecasts — predicting global ad spend growth of 4% to 7% for 2024. Despite economic uncertainty, the industry and their clients are remaining optimistic and are feeling positive about the year ahead despite concerns about cooling inflation.
Here are some key takeaways and comparisons from each of the agency reports.
Dentsu
Big news from the holding company as they forecast a 4.6% year-over-year global ad spend increase for 2024 — that’s a whopping $33 billion to a total of $752.8 billion — driven by digital, CTV, and retail media.
“Despite the current worldwide geo-political instabilities and economic outlook, in 2024 we can see how significant major political and sporting events are for creating positive growth in ad spend,” noted Will Swayne, global practice president of media at Dentsu.
They also expect to see a continuation of the 6.5% growth in digital ad spend in 2024 to reach a total of $442.6 billion and are projecting a 30.8% increase in CTV ad spend, as well as an increase in media opportunities from political and sporting events.
GroupM
A 5.3% increase in global ad spending from GroupM’s 2023/2024 global end-of-year ad forecast is expected (not including U.S. political advertising), slightly lower than last year’s 5.8% increase, bringing the total to $889 billion.
Due to uncertainty in the market and business interest rates, a slight deceleration is expected. Pure play digital, which excludes digital out-of-home and CTV, is predicted to become larger than the entire ad industry was in 2022. Additionally, retail media is witnessing significant growth and is expected to exceed linear TV and CTV combined by 2028.
Magna
IPG’s Magna unit released its winter update of the global ad forecast, noting digital advertising reaccelerating in 2023, with major events expected to boost traditional media in 2024. The global net ad revenue is expected to reach $853 billion this year,