US advertisers increased their investments on digital media by almost 15% last year despite a pandemic and recession, looking for flexibility and accountability.

The COVID-19 outbreak undermined many of our pre-pandemic US forecasts. Insight can now be gleaned by examining the difference between what we thought would happen as of February 2020 vs. what our forecasts now show.

With COVID-19 putting pressure on media budgets, advertisers are figuring out how to realign their OOH strategies.

This report explores the impact COVID-19 will have on our latest regional estimates and trends for total media, traditional media, digital and mobile ad spending in six markets in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.

Total ad spending in France and Germany will fall this year, as a result of the pandemic. Traditional media will suffer most; digital ad spend will rise marginally, to €4.93 billion ($5.51 billion) in France and €7.38 billion ($8.27 billion) in Germany.

The coronavirus pandemic has pushed UK ad spending into negative territory in 2020. However, digital ad spend will grow marginally, by 0.3%, fueled by the impressive performance of video ad spending—up 15.0% this year.

With the coronavirus pandemic leading to a significant economic slowdown, we’re providing updated guidance to our clients about what we expect for ad spending during the first half of this year.

The coronavirus pandemic has upended 2020 ad spending projections, ours included. This report summarizes our H1 2020 Canada ad spending forecast, factoring in available information about the massive downturn in Q2.

The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to mitigate it are wreaking havoc on the economy. How will advertisers respond? We looked back at our coverage of the industry during the Great Recession of 2007-2009 for historical perspective and precedents.

The reports in this collection look at ad spending in the retail, financial services, computing products and consumer electronics, automotive, telecom, travel, health and pharma, media, entertainment and CPG industries. Countries covered in this report series include the US, UK and Germany.

Media and entertainment companies are increasing their digital ad spend at a greater rate than other verticals as revenues surge in the music and film industries and digital video and gaming platforms try to outcompete one another.

Telecom and consumer electronics companies are increasing their digital ad spend as they adjust to rapidly changing technology developments.

CPGs are increasing their search budgets, but private-label competition and mergers and acquisitions activity is hampering overall ad spending growth.

Financial services firms are increasing their digital budgets, particularly for mobile, to target young consumers.

Automotive digital ad spend is increasing, but growth is decelerating due to larger forces at play.

Retail ad budgets continue to grow at a steady pace as retail stalwarts battle disruption from Amazon and other digitally savvy companies.

Healthcare and pharma ad spend is growing at a similar pace to other verticals, but FDA regulations and strict privacy laws restrict overall budgets.

Thanks to rising competition and a strong economy, travel companies are increasing their digital ad budgets.

On average, adults in France will spend more than 10 hours each day with media in 2019. While viewing, listening and reading content digitally continues to displace traditional media, total time spent is reaching a plateau.

In 2019, adults ages 18 and older in Germany will spend nearly 10 hours per day, on average, with digital and traditional media. Digital will account for the largest slice of the total, or 3:53. TV will account for 3:33.

Digital platforms will claim nearly €5 billion ($5.9 billion) in ad outlays in France this year—equivalent to 41.0% of total media ad spending. Three-quarters of that digital sum will go to Facebook and Google.

This year will be the first time that digital ad spending will account for more than 50% of the total US ad market. The majority of digital ad investments will still go to Google and Facebook, but Amazon is gaining ground.

In 2019, digital will account for 50.1% of total media ad spending worldwide thanks to strong growth from major digital ad sellers like Google, Facebook, Alibaba and Amazon. Traditional channels will remain important, however, as advertisers begin to think more holistically about their advertising and marketing budgets.

Advertisers continue to spend on digital formats in the UK, to the detriment of some traditional channels. Brexit is accentuating this trend, with the Google-Facebook duopoly proving to be the biggest winner.