Media Outlook in the COVID-19 Crisis

The full impact from the Covid-19 pandemic across the rest of 2020 and beyond is still unknown. While audience supply has been decimated within some media, others have seen significant increases.

This has fuelled considerable price inflation in many markets, especially in markets and media where pricing is directly influenced by the supply and demand dynamic.

Campaigns are being deferred to Q3 and Q4, as WFA’s research into member ad spending intentions confirms, and clients are looking for intelligence to help them navigate the pricing fluctuations across the rest of the year.

WFA’s OUTLOOK is the industry’s reference point for global annual media cost inflation and deflation. But ad spend is linked to economic health, and much uncertainty remains about when the Covid-19 pandemic will recede, and whether it will flare up again.

As a consequence, reliable media pricing data is hard to obtain. The aim of this report is to introduce qualitative perspectives from media agencies and consultants on how the markets and pricing are predicted to behave across quarters three and four of 2020.

Content
1. Audience Supply, Revenue Demand and Pricing Trends (Q3, Q4 2020)
   1.1. Summary of headline picture
   1.2. Summary by geography
   1.3. Summary by media
2. Advice for brands to plan budgets in highly unpredictable market
3. Other resources

The full report can be downloaded here.