Magna now projects the U.S. ad economy will decline 4.6%, three-tenths of a percentage point more than the 4.3% it projected U.S. ad spending would fall this year.
Its 2021 forecast remains the same: +4.0%.
Magna's revised outlook bring the agency holding company forecast consensus down to 3.9% from 3.8% in its last update, when Zenith released new estimates in July.
While Dentsu Aegis Network has yet to release an update from its year-end 2019 forecast, WPP's GroupM Saturday indicated the global ad economy is rebounding faster than expected, and that it is "even going positive in some markets," although it didn't specify which ones.
In fact, Magna's update indicates the U.S. ad economy fell 7.2% during the first half, suggesting that the second half is in fact rebounding. Magna projects second-half U.S. ad spending will erode only 2.0% from the second half of 2019.
“The Covid crisis has hastened the normal end of the economic cycle and brought on the worst recession ever," Vincent Letang, executive vice president of global market intelligence at Magna states in the updated report.