Digital video viewership in the UK will continue to rise this year. The pandemic has provided a particularly significant impetus for subscription video-on-demand services, while connected TVs have become the consumption device of choice.

The pandemic has hastened the digital future, but ill-conceived marketing tactics predicated on current events should be avoided. UK consumers are more wary of empty marketing rhetoric, so a mindful approach should be cultivated.

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.

From midnight on March 23, the UK government enforced the closure of nonessential retail stores in the UK as part of strict lockdown measures. This shuttering was only lifted on June 15. During those intervening 12 weeks, UK consumers wanting to purchase anything other than groceries or medications could not do so in-store.

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 retail industry will continue to lead the pack in terms of digital ad spend in 2020, and the lockdown has helped retail solidify its position. This year, UK digital ad spending in the retail sector will reach £3.02 billion ($3.85 billion).

Young consumers have led the way in terms of digital habits and consumption through the pandemic, but older age groups have been forced to catch up. Some old habits may die hard in these groups, but the digital future has definitely been hastened.

Advertisers of consumer packaged goods (CPG) in the UK will spend £2.04 billion ($2.60 billion) on digital ads in 2020, up 6.6% year over year. Any growth is good growth in the current environment, but this will represent the most modest growth across all the industries we forecast to increase spending this year.

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.

Usage will exceed 10% of the UK population in 2020