Full Ad Recovery Now Forecast for 2021

Dentsu has issued a revised ad spend forecast for 2021 that is far more upbeat than its previous spend projection issued in January. It expects global advertising to grow by 10.4% to $634 billion while U.S. spending is expected to jump more than 13% to $240 billion.

GroupM Nearly Doubles 2021 U.S. Ad Growth Projection

GroupM projects U.S. ad spending will expand 16.5% — 22.3% if the incremental impact of 2020 political ad spending are removed — a marked improvement from estimates in March (+9.1% and + 14.9%, respectively for total U.S. ad growth and excluding political ad spending).

SMI’s Q1 Ad Spend Data Hits Pre-COVID Levels

According to Standard Media Index data, media agency ad spend in the U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Canada, shows a 4% lift above Q1 2020 and 1% above the pre-COVID Q1 2019 period.

Checking in on 2021 Ad Spending

While it is still early in the year, all signs continue to point to a booming 2021-2022 political cycle. Since the beginning of Q2, spending is up 60% over the same period in 2019 and is only increasing in pace.