• by Joe Mandese , 4 hours ago

WPP Media has markedly upgraded its global advertising-growth forecast for this year and next, as well as for the remainder of the decade.

The revised forecast boosts WPP Media's June mid-year forecast nearly three points for 2025 and a full point for 2026 -- and comes days after another agency holding company, Dentsu, revised its outlook for the foreseeable future marginally downward, citing uncertain macroeconomic conditions.

Characterizing 2025 as a "year of two halves," WPP Media said it boosted its outlook from mid-year due to the fact that negative indicators such as the impact of high U.S. tariffs, a looming trade war and the potential for an "AI bubble" never manifested and macroeconomic fundamentals remain healthy.

"The global economy has had something of a reprieve this year," writes WPP Media Business Intelligence President Kate Scott-Dawkins in the new report, explicitly citing the "diminished" impact of tariffs and a continuing boom in AI investment spending.

For the U.S., WPP Media projects U.S. ad spending will expand 7.4% next year, excluding the impact of political advertising year-over-year.

"North America's total advertising (excluding U.S. political advertising) is forecast to grow 12.3% in 2025 to $452.9 billion and is expected to grow a further 7.5% in 2026. With a 39.8% share of global advertising, North America is the largest region in the world for advertising revenue," the report projects, adding: "Looking ahead to 2026, the U.S. midterms are poised to capture near record political advertising revenue with $12.3 billion, which would be 6.2% higher than the last mid-term election."

In related news, Madison and Wall also boosted its U.S. ad-growth outlook for 2025 to +11% (excluding political and +7.2% including it).

For 2026, Madison and Wall projects U.S. ad spending will expand 6.6%, or 8.9% excluding the impact of political advertising.

"Looking ahead, we also now expect some of this momentum to continue into at least the first part of 2026 and are increasing our growth estimates for the full year to 6.6% ex-political (or 8.9% including political) as a result. This still represents a step down from 2025’s growth level, as the industry’s expansion is expected to moderate throughout the year as policy, geopolitical, and regulatory pressures begin to accumulate."