• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 16, 2024

Citing a "stronger macro economic outlook," higher-than-anticipated second-quarter growth, and demand for digital media and CTV, IPG Mediabrands Magna unit this morning revised its 2024 U.S. advertising growth estimate to 11.4% (8.9% excluding cyclical events such as the Olympics and elections).

It is Magna's fifth consecutive upward revision since originally benchmarking its projection for 2024 U.S. advertising growth at 7.3% in June 2023.

That's a 4.1 percentage-point improvement from Magna's perspective 15 months ago, and comes as most other major agency holding companies, as well as non-affiliated ad industry economists including Madison and Wall's Brian Wieser, have also been boosting their outlooks for U.S. ad industry growth.

At +11.4% Magna's is by far the most bullish 2024 ad growth projection to date, and brings the Big 4 agency holding company estimate up to +8.0%.

“Even without the incremental advertising spending generated around cyclical events, 2024 already looks like a strong year for the U.S. ad market, growing by almost +9%," states Magna Executive Vice President-Global Market Intelligence Vincent Létang, noting; "This is due to strong demand from brands, in a stable economy, and supply-side innovations – e.g., the rise of ad-funded streaming and retail media – offering more scale and return-on-investment to marketers. On top of that, the additional advertising demand generated around Paris Olympics and a re-invigorated presidential campaign will add a record $10 billion of 'cyclical' ad sales to bring total media owners ad revenues to an all-time-high of $377 billion.”