Big multinational advertisers are starting to increase their adspend, showing cautious optimism as they emerge from the fallout of the pandemic, according to the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA).
More than half (54%) surveyed say they are no longer deferring campaigns.
However, overall activity still remains lower across most channels compared to planning before the pandemic, according to WFA’s latest Crisis Response Tracker.
“We are starting to see some green shoots of recovery with more than half our members no longer holding their campaigns back as a result of the pandemic,” says Stephan Loerke, CEO of the WFA.
“There is still a lot of uncertainty though and it’s unlikely we’ll be moving to ‘business as usual’ anytime soon.
“We are also seeing an acceleration of the shift to digital channels but it remains to be seen if this will be permanent.”
Optimism about the current business environment has improved, with 21% now feeling positive and 36% neutral compared to only 8% feeling positive and 41% feeling neutral in June this year, when the last wave of WFA research was conducted.
Actual spend remains lower than originally planned across the first three quarters of the year, with only online display (up 6%) and online video (up 9%) benefiting from higher levels of investment.
The results are based on responses from senior executives at 35 major advertisers with a cumulative total annual ad spend of $US67 billion.
The research was carried out September 17-27 with 75% of respondents holding global roles and 25% regional.
Responses highlight the shift to digital with many saying they have made a full transition to channel-agnostic video planning, boosted their focus on ecommerce, run more virtual/digital marketing activations and influencer events and rebalanced investments between experiential and digital.
Other major channels such as TV, out-of-home and point of sale are beginning to pick up from the historic lows experienced in the first half of the year.
TV is still down 25% for Q1-Q3 but showing better than the 33% cut experienced in the first half.
Out-of-home is 39% down on planned spend, an improvement on the first half of 49% and point of sale is down 20% compared to a 23% fall in the six months to June.
After online video and online display, influencer marketing is closest to matching planned investment with an 11% fall in,compared to a 22% drop in the first half.
Worst hit were events/experiential (down 60% compared to -56% across the first half of the year) and radio (down 35% compared to -25%).
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