McCann Expects US 2005 Adspend To Rise By 4.6%

Looking towards 2006, Bob Coen, senior vice president and director of forecasting for Universal McCann, is more optimistic, expecting advertising in the US to return a growth rate in line with rate expected for the total economy for the year, rising by 5.8% year on year, hitting $292 billion.

Next year’s advertising expenditure will be boosted by the Winter Olympics, with forecasts indicating that there will be a return to stronger economic expansion in most developed parts of the world. Western Europe, however, is expected to remain subdued and somewhat fragile.

Overall, Universal McCann expects worldwide advertising growth of 6% in 2006, despite Coen claiming that the industry is not “expected to boom in 2006 but is not likely to suffer a bust either.”

In the US, total national adspend is forecast to increase at a slightly faster pace that it did in 2005, with heavy spot TV advertising gains anticipated due to the intense political contests that are likely to occur in the coming year.

Continued growth in ad revenues is expected for the cable networks, for mail ad programs and for internet advertising in 2006.

Adspend by local marketers in the US is not predicted to improve much in 2006, however, resulting in the combined expenditure forecast to reach a total of $292 billion, a gain of 5.8% on 2005.

Earlier this year, Coen revised downwards his predictions for adspend, claiming that the strong expansion predicted in national advertising growth that was expected last December had not developed (see McCann Revises 2005 Adspend Estimates).

Elsewhere, ZenithOptimedia is slightly more optimistic about 2005 global adspend, projecting it to be up by 4.8% in 2005 and by 5.9% in 2006 (see ZenithOptimedia Forecasts Steady Adspend Growth).