Why you should read the report
The Future of Media 2024 takes a look at platform power in the era of AI, the current state of linear TV, the future of attention measurement, and the growth of in-game advertising.
“Media environments that can offer suitable guarantees around brand safety will take on extra value” in 2024, says Paul Stringer, managing editor, Research & Insights at WARC. “With this report we aim to provide insights and data enabling marketers to be better equipped to make informed decisions and plan for success in the year ahead.”
Key trends
- AI-based advertising solutions grow but force advertisers into trade-offs
Walled garden platforms are expanding their reach and influence in advertising, thanks in part to the adoption of new AI-based capabilities, such as Meta’s Advantage+ and Google’s Performance Max. For agencies and brands, transparency should be prioritised when working with AI-based tools; AI-generated content is a threat to media quality and brand safety, and steps should be taken to protect investments in open web advertising.
- Linear TV consumption continues its gradual decline but age matters
Spending on linear TV (broadcast and cable) has been declining faster than consumption (-5.4% vs 2.7% in 2023). WARC Media forecasts global linear TV consumption to decline by a further 1.9% in 2024, meaning people will continue to spend more time with linear TV than streaming video, streaming music, or listening to podcasts. But the linear TV demographic is older and budgets will need to represent that as necessary.
- Attention measurement at a crossroads
The need to understand how attention works across different media channels and formats is resulting in more research and the building of new models of media quality. Brands and agencies should scrutinise vendor tools and methods, conduct their own experiments into attention to determine its value to their advertising, and prove the business effects of attention.
- The growth of in-game advertising
For all that gaming is now one of the most popular and pervasive forms of entertainment in the world, offering increasing amounts of ad inventory and a highly engaged and diverse audience, it accounts for just 5% of advertiser budgets according to IAB estimates. But things are changing – major acquisitions, leveraging of gaming IP in new movie releases; the growth of cloud-based game streaming services; investment from new entrants such as Netflix, Amazon and Bytedance – and gaming is set to become the fifth largest channel by ad spend, behind search, social media, linear TV and retail media.
Complimentary sample of The Future of Media 2024 is available here.
Source: warc.com
