Advertisers look set to face a challenging year with TV and digital price inflation expected to peak.
That’s according to the latest Annual Media Inflation Report from ECI Media Management.
Advertisers will need to spend more and optimise the effectiveness of their investments in order to reach mass, quality audiences.
Price inflation
As the new decade starts, ECI forecasts that global media inflation in 2020 will remain largely consistent with 2019 figures.
Any increased levels in inflation are driven in large part by video media; TV inflation will reach 7.1% for TV and digital video inflation will increase to 6.7%.
The global media auditor predicts stable or reduced inflation globally across all other media channels in 2020. Digital display drops to 5.2% while OOH, despite widely reported growth in investment in the channel, sees inflation slow to 4%.
With circulation continuing to reduce across print media, Newspaper inflation remains static year-on-year at 0.6%; while magazine prices will experience a decrease in inflation to 0.5% in 2020.
“As consumers move away from linear TV to other channels and demand for mass, quality audiences skyrockets, it’s no surprise that we expect TV prices to inflate to their highest level in several years”, ECI Media Management’s Global CEO, Fredrik Kinge, said.
Events
“This will be exacerbated by major political and sporting events this year. TV advertising still represents the best opportunity for brands to reach mass audiences, but as more people consume digital video, so advertising spend follows, particularly for the increasing amount of premium content available from digital video vendors.
“This leads to rising TV inflation because consumer eyeballs move away from TV, but vendors increase prices in order to maintain advertising revenues.
“Of course, digital inventory is plentiful, but it is of varying quality. And it is susceptible to ad blocking and data privacy laws.
“This means that TV remains a great choice to deliver mass, quality audiences despite cost increases.”
Broad media coverage
ECI Media Management’s Annual Media Inflation Report forecasts media inflation for seven key media channels; TV, Digital Display, Digital Video, Newspapers, Magazines, OOH and Radio, at a global and regional level and across 61 countries.
ECI’s experts draw data from the report from the company’s global network of offices, and cross-references it with industry sources.
Kinge added: “As we enter a new decade, one thing that is certain is that global economies and technologies will continue to transform rapidly.
“Media inflation inevitably responds, so it is imperative that advertisers take advantage of and respond to these changes to drive the highest value from their investments.”
The full report can be downloaded here