Two major global advertising outlooks paint a picture of continued worldwide growth, driven by “creative destruction” fueled by artificial intelligence, digital innovation, and behavioral change, but reveal contrasting fortunes for traditional audio.
WPP Media’s This Year Next Year 2025 Global End-of-Year Forecast projects global advertising revenue will rise 8.8% in 2025, excluding US political spending, reaching $1.14 trillion. The firm anticipates another 7.1% increase in 2026, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 6.3%.
Trade stability and growing AI investment are identified as the primary forces behind this resilience.
Despite the broader expansion, WPP’s forecast underscores a steady decline for audio’s share of global advertising. The category is projected to shrink from 4.48% in 2024 to 4.15% in 2025, 3.95% in 2026, and just 3.08% by 2030. The firm attributes the contraction to advertiser migration toward digital video, commerce-based platforms, and AI-optimized experiences that increasingly define consumer engagement.
Other traditional channels show mixed outcomes. Newspaper advertising is expected to hold near $31.4 billion in 2025 before resuming its long-term decline. Digital out-of-home is forecast to reach parity with traditional formats by 2030, representing 43.9% of total out-of-home revenue.
Dentsu’s Global Ad Spend Forecasts 2026 takes a complementary yet forward-leaning view, describing an industry entering what it calls the “Algorithmic Era.” Global advertising is expected to grow 5.1% in 2026—surpassing one trillion U.S. dollars for the first time and outpacing the projected 3.1% rise in the world economy. Dentsu frames this milestone as a structural turning point, asserting that “media becomes the front door to every brand” and the primary driver of growth, creativity, and relevance.
The agency attributes much of the momentum to a wave of major events like the Olympic Winter Games, the FIFA World Cup, and midterm election cycles that will heighten audience engagement across platforms. Regionally, dentsu projects the US up 5.0% overall.
Digital advertising is expected to climb 6.7% to 68.7% of total global spend. Retail media is forecast to grow 14.1%, followed by online video at 11.5% and social media at 11.4%. Programmatic transactions are expected to account for more than 80% of digital ad activity. Traditional formats are predicted to rise modestly: television by 2.4% and out-of-home by 4.1%, while print declines 3%.
Unlike WPP’s analysis, dentsu’s report omits radio and audio entirely. However, BIA Advisory Services previously projected renewed growth for radio in 2026.
In August, BIA VP Senan Mele said over-the-air radio revenue is expected to rise 1.83% year over year, reversing 2025’s modest decline, while digital revenue will climb 5.01%. The group forecasts $7.9 billion in political advertising across local media in 2026, with sustained outside strength in radio digital and streaming, with digital revenue also forecast to grow 4.5% in 2025, excluding political ads.
