Media buying agencies Zenith and GroupM have lowered their expectations for global ad spending in 2017 and 2018, due to factors ranging from political uncertainty in the U.K. to slowing growth in China, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WPP's GroupM is expecting 3% global ad growth in 2017, down from the 4.4% it predicted last December.
“Multinational CPG names appeared to spend a lot less in China in 2016, but this is only TV and print, and tells us nothing about the migration to digital these advertisers surely make,” GroupM said in its report. GroupM’s China operation also attributes a slowdown in growth in the region to “a consumer pause, as evidenced by Kantar data; further TV regulation; and digital running out of room as it approaches 60% market share.”
According to the company's new report Publicis Groupe's Zenith predicts global ad spending will grow 4.0% in 2017.
That’s a downgrade from the 4.2% growth that Zenith had forecast in June. The June forecast was a downgrade from the 4.4% the Publicis Groupe media agency had forecast in March.
Total expenditures are now expected to reach $558 billion.
"I was surprised to downgrade so many Eurozone ad markets, since the region is currently enjoying its best economic performance for a decade," says Jonathan Barnard, the agency’s head of forecasting and director of global intelligence.