Advertising Spending

Growth of worldwide adspend likely to double in 2024, says study

By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2024

Five major players will attract more than half of all advertising spending, while in-game ads remain an untapped opportunity.

By our African Marketing Confederation News Team.

Global advertising spending will double its growth rate in 2024, topping $1 trillion for the first time, according to a prediction published this week by the World Advertising Research Centre (Warc).

The study says five companies – Alibaba, Alphabet, Amazon, Bytedance and Meta – are likely to attract 52% of worldwide adspend this year as their ad revenues rise by 10.7%.

Key to growth is the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). However, Warc believes this raises important questions about media quality and the future of advertising on the open internet.

Photo by Andre Benz on Unsplash

The ‘Future of Media 2024’ report analyses platform power in the era of AI, the current state of linear TV, the future of attention measurement, and the growth of in-game advertising.

Paul Stringer, Managing Editor for Research and Insights at Warc, says as marketing budgets rebound in many regions in 2024, uncertainty swirls around where best to direct investments in media, the role of AI in planning, and how to assess media quality.

“And as politics temporarily engulf culture with impending elections in several major economies, and the threat of low-quality AI generated content looms large, media environments that can offer suitable guarantees around brand safety will take on extra value,” he states.

Spending on in-game advertising remains low

Examining the growth of in-game advertising spending, the report points out that, with a global audience of over 3-billion people, gaming has developed into one of the most popular and pervasive forms of entertainment in the world.

Yet it remains a largely untapped opportunity for brands as they plan their future adspend.

Research by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) estimates that gaming accounts for 5% of advertiser budgets at present.

Offering increasing amounts of ad inventory and a highly engaged and diverse audience, there are shifts taking place across the wider gaming industry that signal the potential for further growth.

Among these shifts are the continual leveraging of gaming IP in new TV and movie releases, and the growth of cloud-based game-streaming services.

The report quotes an estimate by PwC that video game advertising revenues will be worth US$91-billion in 2024, meaning gaming would be the fifth largest channel by advertising spending – behind search, social media, linear TV and retail media.

According to Warc’s ‘Marketer’s Toolkit Survey 2024’, more than half (51%) of advertisers plan to increase their investments in gaming adspend next year, but authenticity and integration are key to success.

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