On today's episode, we discuss how airlines, hotels, and vacation rental homes are recovering, and the ways in which travel might be changed forever. We then talk about the shift of ad dollars and viewers from connected TV to linear, TV makers that are staking their future growth on streaming ads, and how the vMVPD (skinny bundle) market is shaking out. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer associate forecasting analyst Zach Goldner, director of forecasting Oscar Orozco, and senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom.

On today's episode, we discuss what "going back to the office" may actually mean, the dawn of “tiered-access journalism,” video safe havens for brands, possible surges in travel plans, Facebook's new video speed dating app called Sparked, why the Rubik's Cube was invented, and more. Tune in to listen to the discussion with eMarketer principal analysts Jillian Ryan and Jeremy Goldman, and analyst at Insider Intelligence Blake Droesch.

Traditionally, travel advertisers including online travel agencies are among the biggest search ad spenders on Google. That business tanked last year, but ecommerce-related search advertising outperformed thanks to the supercharged digital retail environment.

Travel ad dollars fly higher

In a difficult year for advertising worldwide, digital ad spending in Germany will see only 0.8% growth. Most of the industries we break out will decelerate their digital ad spend to some degree, while travel and auto will reduce theirs dramatically.

The pandemic has greatly affected the distribution of digital ad spending across industries. The bottom fell out of the travel industry, as will ad spending in the sector, while retail will consolidate its dominant position in digital ad spend this year.

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 and entertainment, and CPG industries. Countries covered in this report series include the US, UK, and Germany.

The pandemic has caused the US automotive industry to reduce its digital ad spending by 18.2% in 2020. As car sales plummeted, dealerships closed, and manufacturing slowed, marketers backed off from performance initiatives and focused on branding efforts.

eMarketer senior analyst at Insider Intelligence Jasmine Enberg discusses when travel (and travel advertising) will recover and some good and not-so-good examples of how travel advertisers are running campaigns. She then talks about whether Twitter can make a space for healthy conversations, our expectations for WhatsApp, and the significance of social platforms ending the year looking more alike than ever.

In a difficult year for digital advertising overall, US travel industry spending will decline faster than any other vertical. It will bring up the rear in total spending and claim the smallest market share of all industries we cover.

The coronavirus has upended the US travel industry. Fears of infection, governmental measures restricting travel and access to public places, and the economic downturn will depress bookings, sales and ad spending in 2020 and beyond.