Tag: WARC

WARC’s latest forecasts show that global advertising spend is forecast to grow 9.1% in 2026 to $1.30trn, doubling in size since the pandemic and equivalent to $150 spent on every person.  The incremental growth is mostly being captured by digital platforms, not traditional channels. Almost 80% of ad spend now flows into retail media, paid search, and social platforms. The remaining 20% is shared across the whole of the rest of the media industry. These changes in the media landscape are forcing a rethink of traditional planning approaches.   Paul Stringer, Managing Editor, Research & Insights, WARC, says: “The established model for media planning and buying…

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A new study from WARC, the experts in marketing effectiveness, has found that global advertising spend is now on course to close out 2025 with growth of 8.9% to $1.19trn, an upgrade of 1.5 percentage points (pp) from WARC’s September forecast due to strong results from Big Tech platforms and a muted impact on global trade from trade tariffs.   A further rise of 9.1% (+1.0pp since September) to $1.30trn is forecast next year, while growth of 7.9% (+0.8pp) in 2027 would push the market’s value to $1.40trn – a doubling in size since the pandemic and equivalent to $150 spent for every person alive today.  The new projections are included…

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Only a fifth (19%) of brand marketers expect budgets to rise next year, despite over half (59%) believing business will improve.   40 percentage point gap highlights continuing need for marketers to do more with less  WARC releases The Voice of the Marketer report- a deep dive into a survey of 1,000+ marketers worldwide  Marketers’ cooling optimism, uncertainty around US trade policies, the impact of AI adoption and the dominance of digital channels on media planning, are the top themes examined in WARC’s Voice of the Marketer report.    Part of WARC’s Evolution of Marketing programme, The Voice of the Marketer uncovers marketers’…

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LinkedIn is best known as a leader in business-to-business marketing offering unique professional targeting capabilities. Ad investment in the Microsoft-owned platform has steadily increased, with WARC forecasting it to reach $8.2bn in 2025 (+18.3%), fuelled by gains from the emerging Gen AI category, B2B creators, and by extending B2B campaigns into connected TV.  This latest Platform Insights by WARC Media, provides comprehensive data-driven intelligence on LinkedIn’s advertising landscape, examining the platform’s latest trends through the lens of investment, user engagement and performance.  Celeste Huang, Media Insights Analyst, WARC Media, and author of the report, said: “LinkedIn accounts for a small part of Microsoft’s overall revenue. However, its ad business is outpacing other mid-size platforms like Snapchat and…

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WARC has unveiled The Marketer’s Toolkit 2026, revealing five critical trends set to disrupt global marketing practices and reshape brand strategies in the year ahead. From the vanishing middle market and the creator investment gamble to the great escape, AI-driven zero-click journeys and shifting consumer milestones, the report provides marketers with essential insights to transform these disruptions into opportunities for growth.   The trend identification for the report, now in its 15th year, is based on WARC’s proprietary GEISTE methodology which focuses on the broad macro trends across government, economy, industry, society, technology, and environment. It further incorporates a global…

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