Some segments of the entertainment industry—notably amusement and recreation, box office, film, and music—were especially affected as theme parks, movie theaters, concert venues, and production of TV shows and movies virtually shut down in early 2020 and only recently resumed operations. Amusement Parks.

Travel and entertainment also contributed to this growth, with cruise lines, concerts/theater, and amusement parks seeing triple-digit increases. Whether consumers will keep splurging on in-person experiences—or pull back as they have on retail—remains to be seen. With gas prices approaching or exceeding $5 per gallon in every state, travel and entertainment may be next on the chopping block.

With the shuttering of amusement parks and cancellation of live events, the entertainment industry will see some of the biggest declines in digital ad spending this year, eclipsed only by the travel, auto, and media industries.

Entertainment will put up a huge growth figure after a rough 2020, as the reopening of movie theaters and amusement parks—along with the intensification of the OTT streaming wars—re-energizes the industry’s ad spending. Retail, surprisingly, will put up the next highest growth rate (34.5%), which is impressive given how high its base already is and that its spending growth has never dipped below 20%.

According to the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA), the miscellaneous services and amusements category accounts for the largest share of OOH ad spending in the US in Q2 each year. In Q2 2019, advertisers in this category—which includes sports and many other canceled spring and summer activities like concerts, festivals and amusement parks—represented 23.4% of spending.

With the shuttering of amusement parks and the cancellation of live events, entertainment will see some of the biggest declines in digital ad spending this year. We expect entertainment digital ad spending to decrease by 6.9%, down by roughly $520 million from 2019 and well behind the overall digital ad market’s 1.7% growth. It is a stark drop compared with last year’s 28.2% growth.

With the reopening of cinemas and amusement parks and strong advertising from companies promoting mobile video games, new generation consoles, and streaming video-on-demand platforms, we expect a strong year of digital ad spending targeting younger consumers and the reemployed. Digital ad spend in the entertainment industry will grow by 37.2% to reach over $11 billion.

But if Disney is promoting its Disney+ streaming service or advertising a theme park, that would fall into the entertainment category.