After a challenging first seven months of 2023 for advertising revenue in media, Chief Revenue Officers for numerous companies are seeing signs of recovery, particularly in five ad categories, while tech and finance remain sluggish.
According to data from MediaRadar, digital advertising spend from January to July 2023 dropped 7% year-over-year to $36 billion. This loss hasn’t been helped by stagnant entertainment ad spend, fueled by ongoing industry strikes. However, auto, travel, fashion, luxury, and beauty are showing strong performance.
In increasing trend in ad spend would back up the recent forecast by WARC calling for an 8.2% increase in spending and more than $1 trillion spent on ads worldwide in 2024. In audio, revenue is expected to rise a modest, yet steady 3.3% to $36.6 billion.
These findings are backed up by several CRO interviews conducted by Digiday. Reuters CRO Eric Danetz expressed optimism for the latter half of the year, citing positive interactions with ad clients. BDG President and CRO Jason Wagenheim noted that while some traditionally strong categories like tech and fashion are struggling, others such as beauty and auto are experiencing growth. Vox Media’s CRO Geoff Schiller highlighted increased spending in consumer packaged goods and luxury categories.
MediaRadar’s data also showed variations in year-over-year ad spending for the first seven months of 2023. While consumer packaged goods increased by 11% and automotive by 18%, beauty dropped by 9% and travel by 12%. Pamela Drucker Mann, Global CRO of Condé Nast, said, “The auto category is making a pretty significant comeback, but that’s also because it … was not pacing well this time last year. Not just for the back half of this year, but for 2024 — planning is also way ahead of where it was last year, but probably back in line with where it should be.” She also expressed hope for a rebound in tech and finance heading into Q4 and 2024.
Drucker Mann and Schiller both said that while the strikes have not yet significantly affected ad spending, they could have a material impact in 2024. “We’ll see what happens, but we haven’t seen any sort of veer away from [spend in the entertainment category]. We’ve seen a pretty robust September as far as all of the pilots and renewals, but nothing unique as far as subscriber-based [acquisition] initiatives [from streaming platforms],” said Schiller.
