by   @mp_joemandese
Source: www.mediapost.com, November 2021

Despite unprecedented disruptions over the past couple of years — including a global pandemic, economic recessions, social unrest and issues with various supply-chain issues — the global ad economy is poised for sustainable growth, but its composition will be very different going forward, according to a new report released this week by GroupM.

The report, “Portraits Of Change: The New Economy,” which was co-written by GroupM Business Intelligence Global President Brian Wieser, Essence Vice President-Thought Leadership & Innovation Kate Scott-Dawkins, and various GroupM agency contributors, shows that some of the industry’s biggest traditional categories — including automotive, consumer packaged goods (CPG) and telecommunications — are flattening or decelerating in their growth, while others are turbo-charging overall ad industry growth in their place, especially luxury and technology.

The report, interestingly, mirrors the topical findings of this month’s data from Standard Media Index, which shows that automotive and CPG have been lagging the U.S. ad industry’s recovery, while smaller but rapidly emerging categories are picking up their slack.

“Habits formed during times of adversity have a way of becoming permanent,” the GroupM authors explain in the report’s introduction, citing “Children of the Great Depression never outgrew the compulsion to conserve resources, and the women who entered the workforce during World War II never really left. Today, as offices and cinemas reopen and airports prepare for holiday crowds, we are in the exciting position of seeing which consumer behaviors adopted during the pandemic may be with us for the long term and how they will affect our culture, our economy and our industry.”

While the report focused on the five largest categories, it’s a good indicator of how shifts in global and regional economics, as well as logistics and consumer mindsets, may be reshaping the supply-and-demand of many other categories in ways that will impact their ad-spending growth.
Among the big overall takeaways predicted by the GroupM analysts are that:
  • “Business transformation” will continue to accelerate.
  • Businesses will continue to rethink their dependence on distant markets and companies.
  • Marketers “have opportunities to shift their advertising budgets to reflect these changes.”