The ad industry is on track to have a strong year, according to a new report from the World Advertising Research Center (WARC) called Global Ad Spend Outlook 2024/2025: A Decade of Consolidation.

James McDonald—the research firm’s director of data, intelligence and forecasting—authored the report, which was published on August 22. According to his findings, the numbers suggest that advertising spend on a global scale will increase by 10.5% this year to reach US$1.07 trillion, with 7% upticks also anticipated in 2025 and 2026.

Alphabet, Amazon and Meta are “expected to draw 43.6% of all advertising spend this year, and more than half of spend outside of China,” the report added.

Rapid growth is evident in the connected TV sector (where AVOD and FAST platforms reside), which should be worth US$35.2 billion to advertisers this year. It will account for two-thirds of growth in the video market in 2024, and all growth in 2025.

Elsewhere, social media is expected to generate roughly US$241 billion in spending this year, comprising a 22.6% share of total global ad spend. And while Meta is the dominant player in this market with a 62.6% share, the study points out that TikTok’s owner ByteDance is emerging as a strong competitor and pacing to control a 20% share of all social spending this year—a sharp rise from 9.3% in 2019. But TikTok’s growth trajectory faces a big hurdle in the shape of a potential US ban on the app—which would mean losing out on US teens, who make up a huge chunk of its regional audience (roughly six in 10 TikTok users, according to Pew Research).

Staying on the subject of advertising but looking at it from a different angle, another study was published last week scrutinizing food & beverage ads seen by US kids. Researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago reviewed Nielsen TV ratings data from 2013 through 2022 for the Trends in Children’s Exposure to Food and Beverage Advertising on Television report it released on August 22.

The key takeaway is that under-12s still see more than 1,000 food-related ads a year, and roughly 60% of them promote unhealthy products—even though food & beverage commercials airing during kids shows have dipped by 95%. To navigate this, the study recommends that regulations against unhealthy food ads should focus more on the hours of day when kids are likely to watch TV.

The researchers behind this report also highlighted that mobile devices are an additional way that children are being exposed to an increasing number of food-related ads, and they recommend more study. “We really need to understand where else the food companies target kids and what they’re seeing,” said co-author and professor Lisa Powell.

Image courtesy of Glenn Carstens-Peters/Unsplash