NEW YORK: Not so long ago, advertising executives were banking on the start of an industry recovery as early as the third quarter after the global coronavirus pandemic decimated marketing budgets this year.
But the rebound will be slower than expected as the restart of the US economy has stumbled across many states and Covid-19 infections have spiked in key regions including California, Florida and Texas. Ad market forecasters said they are likely to lower expectations for the year.
Just last month, analysts were expecting third-quarter US ad sales to decline by 4.8% versus the year-ago quarter, which would have been an improvement over the 16.8% decline in the hard-hit second quarter.
But now it appears the third quarter could be “significantly worse” than a 4.8% decline due to Americans continuing to work from home and sectors such as theatres and travel taking longer to recover, said Vincent Letang, executive vice-president of global market intelligence at research firm MAGNA, a division of advertising conglomerate Interpublic Group of Companies Inc.
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