Marketers’ ad spend to grow in H2 led by social media and display, report finds

Dive Brief:

The sense of optimism felt by the ad industry in the first half of 2024 is expected to endure, with a significant number of advertisers midway through the year reporting that they again plan to maintain or increase their spending in every channel, per Mediaocean’s 2024 H2 market report.
When asked to rank the most important consumer and technology media trends, 56% of marketers listed connected TV (CTV) and streaming as a top priority, followed by generative artificial intelligence (AI) at 55% and TikTok and social video at 47%.
Industry professionals also signaled optimism for the potential of AI to help power research and analysis, among other use cases. Mediaocean’s report reflects input from over 1,200 marketing professionals and was conducted in July.

Dive Insight:

As brands continue to develop integrated advertising programs, omnichannel media investments continue to expand — a trend also observed in Mediaocean’s November 2023 survey — led by social media, digital display/video and CTV. For the second half of 2024, two-thirds of survey respondents plan to increase social media spending, 64% will increase digital display/video spending and 55% will increase CTV spending. In addition, 30%, 31% and 37% will maintain spending in those channels, respectively.

Among the findings, more than half of respondents said CTV was the most critical consumer technology and media trend, closely followed by generative AI, for the second half of 2024. According to Nielsen’s The Gauge measurement tool, the amount of time spent streaming increased by more than 40% in June, marking its largest share of TV usage ever recorded.

Still, AI remains critically important for the industry, particularly when it comes to data analysis and market research. Those applications will account for 45% and 40% of use cases, respectively, according to the survey respondents, while copywriting and image generation accounted for 27% and 22% of use cases, respectively.

When it comes to media investment, performance-driven paid media was considered the most critical investment among 69% of survey respondents. But many are becoming more concerned about their mastery of first-party data. Thirty-five percent of respondents identified first-party data as a critical capability, up 25% from the survey’s responses from 2023.

“With Google’s recent announcement that they will no longer deprecate cookies but rather provide more prominent opt-out mechanisms for consumers, collecting and managing first-party data will continue to be an imperative for advertisers,” the report detailed. “Marketers must continue to embrace a multi-ID approach that includes cookies along with other identities to ensure consumers continue to receive the personalized brand experiences they have come to expect.”

Finally, as advertisers seek more transparency for their media spending, they heavily trust the Media Rating Council accreditation and robust reporting. When queried about which aspect of ad verification was most critical when selecting partners, measurement topped the list, selected by 33% of respondents, followed by actionability on real-time decision-making (23%), comprehensive channel coverage (16%) and integration and connectivity to media buying applications (15%).