MAGNA has increased its full year US advertising revenue forecasts to 6.3% growth from 5.1% previously following a stringer than expected first half.
Based on analysis of media owner’s financial reports, US advertising revenue grew by 7.6% to $US107 billion in nthe half year to June.
A strong economic environment drove the increased spend from several key verticals (finance, retail, travel) while tech giants and Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) brands continued to expand marketing budget to include editorial.
MAGNA, a unit oif IPG Mediabrands, has increased its full year 2019 forecast to 6.3% from 5.1% in the June update.
Vincent Létang, EVP Global Market Intelligence at MAGNA, says the US ad market had a great first half thanks to a strong economic environment as well as media innovation and a dynamic technology sector.
"Digital media ad sales matured, as expected, but continued to grow close to +20% yoy, while editorial media performed better than expected thanks a recovery of radio, and OOH in full swing," he says.
Direct Digital Media ad sales grew by 19% in the first half (search +16%, social +31%), a mild and expected slowdown from the high growth rates of 2017-2018 (+22% and +40% ), as these formats gradually mature.
Editorial Media ad sales (TV, publishing, audio, OOH) were stable in the first half (+0.2%), thanks to strong growth in digital video (+25%) and OOH (+7%), the recovery in audio media (+2%) and the stability of national TV (0%) offsetting the struggling local TV (-5%) and publishing (-12%).
For 2020, MAGNA forecasts an 11th consecutive year of growth as an all-time-high in political ad spend will generate $US5.5 billion in incremental ad revenues and will mitigate the impact of the expected moderate economic.
Podcasting is still an emerging format but already a quarter of all Americans are listening to podcasts weekly and major consumer brands are starting advertising into podcasts.
The key numbers:
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