Dentsu have released their Ad Spend forecast for 2021, which expects global ad spend to grow again after the impacts of COVID-19 on the industry.
Advertising spend across the globe is expected to grow 5.8 percent in 2021, after the 8.8 percent fall in spend last year as a result of COVID-19. While an estimated $579 billion will be spent globally in 2021, ad expenditure likely won’t return to pre-pandemic levels until 2022.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the pandemic led to a definite shift in favour of digital advertising in terms of ad spend. Digital ad share for the region was 55.7 percent of ad spend in 2020, higher than the global average of 48 percent.
Australia’s growth for 2021 is predicted to be an important improvement from 2020. Last year saw a loss of 11.2 percent, but 2021 is predicted to see an increase of 5.9 percent. Growth in 2022 is expected to reach 6.2 percent in 2022.
Recovery likelihood remains varied across industries. In APAC, TV reached a historic low of 28 percent in 2022 and is forecast to continue declining into 2022.
In contrast, while cinema was hit worst globally with a decline of 58.3 percent, there is the confidence that people will flock back to the pictures when they are able. By 2022, cinema is set to bounce back by 64.7 percent, but this will vary between markets and regions.
dentsu CEO APAC Ashish Bhasin (main photo) believed social commerce will be essential in the coming years.
“Accelerated by the pandemic and enabled by 5G, technologies which were once thought to be tough to embrace became our key enablers: AI, collaboration tools and social-commerce adoption usage surged,” he said in a press release.
“Based on our recent ad spend report, we are expecting to see a dramatic increase in virtual products and experiences. Now that we are unrestrained by physical space, we are at liberty to reimagine what a concert, conference, shopping experience, buying property, cars, attending a class should and can be.”
