Online video and social advertising to accelerate this year

April 7, 2021

Advertising on online video and social media will see the most widespread increase in spend this year, following a relatively positive 2020, according to a global survey of marketers by Kantar.

Online video ads saw the largest net budget increase due to the coronavirus outbreak and this is expected to be the case again in 2021. Advertising on social media stories and news feeds are close behind, followed by online display, branded content shared via online influencers and streaming TV ads via a smart TV.

Cinema advertising saw the most widespread decline last year, but newspaper and magazine advertising are expected to see the largest decline this year.

WARC Data’s latest forecasts show both online video and social media to register double-digit growth this year. Cinema and out-of-home advertising will see some level of rebound, though newspapers, magazines and linear TV investment will largely be flat globally in 2021.

Kantar also finds that marketers are focusing more on campaign effectiveness as a result of the pandemic.

The most effective advertisers can almost double their return on investment to $2.09, though the factors relevant to each category vary – short-term creative is particularly influential for the tech & comms and retail categories. Evidence suggests reach and ad quality are the most important short-term drivers of ROI, though this is less true for food and personal hygiene brands.

Sourced from WARC