A leading marketing intelligence firm has downgraded its prediction for ad spend in Australia this year.
Warc, which looks at trends and data from global markets, said it expects Australian spend will grow by just 2.2%, down from the 2.6% predicted last November.
The firm predicts global advertising spend (based on 12 major markets) will spike by 3% in 2013 and by 5.4% next year, according to its latest International Ad Forecast.
It added that global ad spend will rise by just 0.6% this year, a substantial drop from the estimated growth of 3.8% in 2012.
Warc has placed the blame for the downward predictions on the absence this year of some of last year's major events, such as the London Olympics and the US presidential election, alongside on-going concerns about the health of the global economy, particularly in relation to the eurozone debt crisis.
Russia (12.4%) is predicted to record the biggest increase in ad spend this year, followed by Brazil (9.5%), China (9.0%) and India (7.9%).
With the exceptions of Brazil and Japan, all markets experienced downgrades to their forecasts for 2013 compared with Warc’s November report.
