According to WARC Data, advertising investment is set to fall by 8.1% in 2020, due to the Coronavirus pandemic. However, this decline should be less than that of 2009, which saw the advertising market fall by 12.7%. While most economic sectors are likely to be affected by this decline, the hardest-hit segments are expected to be travel and tourism (-31.2%), leisure and entertainment (-28.7%), financial services (-18.2%), retail (-15.2%) and the automotive industry (-11.4%).
Unsurprisingly, with an overall average fall of 16.3%, traditional media will suffer more than online media: cinema (-31.6%), OOH (-21.7%), print (-20.1%), radio (-16.2%) and TV (-13.8%).
Digital communication should fare better, with a slight increase of 0.6%, but with differentiated success on the different platforms: social media (+9.8%), online video (+5.0%), search engines (+0.9%). Online classified ads, especially recruitment platforms, are likely to experience a sharp decline (-10.3%).
Every crisis also presents its share of opportunities: the strongest brands should take advantage of this situation to gain visibility and occupy new communication territories. A recovery (+4.9%) is expected for 2021.
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