• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 5, 2023

Publicis Media’s Zenith unit quietly released a year-end update to its global advertising forecast -- revising its 2024 growth projection to +5.3% excluding U.S. political ad spending vs. the +6.9% it projected in its previous update in June, which included political ad spending.

The update, which was posted early this morning on its corporate website a day after two other major agency holding company forecasting units -- IPG Mediabrands Magna and WPP’s GroupM -- had released theirs, was uncharacteristic, given that all three agencies traditionally announce their year-end updates with some fanfare on the first Monday of December each year.

For 2023, Zenith project global ad spending will rise 4.8%.

Regionally, Zenith did not release an update to its U.S. outlook, but it said ad spending in the Americas will grow 5.7% this year -- up from the 4.3% growth rate it was projecting for North America in its June update.

Editor's Note: This article has been updated from an earlier version that did not note Zenith's decision to begin excluding U.S. political ad spending effective with its December 2023 projections.