Following mixed effects of the pandemic in 2020, the US retail, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and entertainment industries are rebounding in 2021.

On this special edition of the show, we're taking a look back at some of the most notable conversations we've had this year. In this episode, we discuss what the media world will look like by 2030 concerning digital ads, shopping, banks, pay TV, digital video, and esports.

We estimate that digital ad spending by consumer product good (CPG) brands will hit $30.56 billion this year. What's more is that the CPG sector is one of five industries to devote more than 70% of their total ad budgets to mobile.

These are boom times for digital advertising. While the pandemic battered the economy, the job market, and consumer confidence, it did little to quash a bonanza in digital ad spending. Still, there are challenges ahead for the industry, including grappling with the thorny issue of measuring ad performance across fragmented media platforms and walled gardens.

The Great Recession was a low point in the recorded history of advertising. Total media ad spending declined for two straight years in the US, and digital ad spending even dropped in absolute terms in 2009, the only time that’s ever happened. But most of the buy-side decision-makers surveyed in late March 2020 by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) think the coronavirus pandemic will have an even worse effect on US ad budgets.

eMarketer is working on an updated forecast of US digital ad spending for June. Forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom and principal analyst Andrew Lipsman join host Nicole Perrin to talk about some of the big questions we're asking about connected TV, performance advertisers and digital ad product innovations.

This year, digital ad spend in the US entertainment industry will drop by 6.9% to $7.03 billion.

The US automotive industry will spend just $10.94 billion on digital advertising this year, down by 18.2% from 2019.

Hulu’s 2021 ad revenue outpaces competitors, but troubles loom: The streamer’s reliance on partners like NBCUniversal to provide content could hamstring further growth.

Though the B2B digital ad market represents a small slice of total US digital ad spending in 2020, it is thriving as the coronavirus pandemic continues to plague parts of the world and hinder the economy.

With mobile accounting for more than two-thirds of US digital ad spending, the pandemic's economic effects didn’t spare mobile ad spend. Still, the format is faring slightly better than most other media and will eke out growth in 2020.

Marketers will spend $17.37 billion on advertising on ecommerce sites and apps this year, according to eMarketer’s first-ever forecast of ecommerce channel ad spending. Ad spending on ecommerce properties will be up 38.8% from 2019—an acceleration of spending growth, thanks to the pandemic. By the end of this year, ecommerce channel advertising will represent 12.2% of US digital ad spend.

The coronavirus pandemic and its effects on the economy have upended media plans. eMarketer forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom joins host Nicole Perrin to talk about research on what advertisers are doing to respond and which channels are getting hit hardest, as well as what current developments might mean for our next US digital ad spending forecast.

Based on a bottom-up look at the market, eMarketer has updated our estimates of US digital ad spending this year. eMarketer forecasting analysts Eric Haggstrom and Peter Vahle, along with junior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Nazmul Islam, join eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin to talk about the building blocks of the forecast, what we know about performance at major digital ad sellers, and how it all adds up to the whole. Plus, they put our digital forecast in the context of other major media.