• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, March 31, 2021

IPG Mediabrands' Magna Global unit becomes the second major agency forecasting unit to update its U.S. advertising outlook, revising its 2021 forecast to +6.4%, a 2.3 percentage-point improvement for the 4.1% growth it was projecting for the U.S. ad economy when it released its last estimate in December 2020.

The move follows GroupM's update, released last Saturday, which revised the WPP unit's 2021 U.S. ad outlook up by 3.1 percentage points to +9.1%.

The agencies' revisions move the current consensus 2021 U.S. forecast for the four agency holding company forecast units (also including Dentsu and Publicis Media's Zenith) to +5.7% from 5.1% previously.

Importantly, both Magna's and GroupM's updates also revised their final 2020 growth estimates upward, making 2021 growth comparisons even more significant.

Magna also is the first agency holding company unit to move its official 2020 U.S. estimate into positive territory: +0.6% vs. the -1.3% it had estimated in December 2020.

GroupM, meanwhile, revised its final 2020 number for the U.S. ad economy to -2.0%, an 1.9 percentage-point improvement from the 3.9% decline it had originally estimated for the U.S. ad economy in December 2020.