WARC Media predicts that global advertising spend double its growth in 2024, with spend expected to top $1 million, but expresses caution around AI.
The revelations come in its latest ‘The Future of Media 2024’ report which explored power in the era of AI, the current state of linear TV and the future of attention measurement as well as the growth of in-game advertising.
Key findings in the report include that despite walled garden platforms being set to grow in part because they are drawing on AI including Meta’s Advantage+ and Google’s Performance Max, there is concern around transparency.
Therefore, the report states that for agencies and brands transparency should be prioritised when working with AI based tools, with AI being a threat to media quality.
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Meanwhile, linear TV is set to continue gradually declining, with WARC’s 2024 Marketer’s Toolkit revealing that only 18% of marketers world wide plan to increase their investment in linear TV, while 39% plan to withdraw advertising spend on TV.
Despite this, time spent watching TV only declined on average by three minutes daily and remains the most trusted medium.
Horizon Media chief investment officer Dave Campanelli said: “We hear a lot about ‘linear is dead’. People are still watching linear TV. They tend to be older, but they are still watching linear TV. And it’s 50% of this whole pie. ”
“Our budgets need to represent that, depending on your age segment and who you’re going after.”
However, the report also found that attention measurement is too heavily focused on tools centred on visual media like eye tracking, survey based recall, and facial coding and that in-game advertising has the potential for further growth, with a current global audience of over 3 billion.
“As marketing budgets rebound in 2024, uncertainty swirls around where best to direct investments in planning, and how to assess media quality,” said WARC research and insights managing director Paul Stringer.
“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.”
“With this report we aim to provide insights and data enabling marketers to be better equipped to make informed decisions and plan for success in the year ahead.”
