Extract from Original full article by Nick Waters, Chief Executive Officer of EBIQUITY Group.
In October 2022, EBIQUITY invited Ian Whittaker, the founder of Liberty Sky Advisors and a
specialist city analyst in the media and marketing technology sectors, to share his take on the macro-
economic outlook – for the global economy, for consumer behaviour, and for advertisers – in a webinar
chaired by Ebiquity Group CEO, Nick Waters.
Ian highlighted the following important structural forces likely to drive advertising investment in
the years ahead:
The ESG (Environment, Sustainability, and Governance) agenda – doing well by doing
good – is increasingly important. Brands need to communicate their ESG credentials to
benefit from their investment in this key point of differentiation.
Following the lead of Procter & Gamble, the world’s biggest consumer goods business
and the world’s biggest advertiser, there’s clear market acceptance that advertising builds
brands and sales by increasing revenue and profits, which in turn translates to better long-
term share performance. Where P&G leads, the market tends to follow.
Data will become increasingly important to brands in more and more categories,
particularly consumer goods and retail. In a post-cookie world, brands will increasingly
hoard and make best use of first-party data and deploy data smarter as a strategic asset.
The silos between traditional and digital media are breaking down. Press (national
newspapers, magazines, and regional newspapers) and out-of-home advertising all
generate more than 70% of revenue from digital versions of their media inventory. TV is
a laggard, but there’s growing evidence that linear TV – still a strong delivery medium –
will generate a larger and larger share of its revenue from digital.
In October 2022, EBIQUITY invited Ian Whittaker, the founder of Liberty Sky Advisors and a
specialist city analyst in the media and marketing technology sectors, to share his take on the macro-
economic outlook – for the global economy, for consumer behaviour, and for advertisers – in a webinar
chaired by Ebiquity Group CEO, Nick Waters.
Ian highlighted the following important structural forces likely to drive advertising investment in
the years ahead:
The ESG (Environment, Sustainability, and Governance) agenda – doing well by doing
good – is increasingly important. Brands need to communicate their ESG credentials to
benefit from their investment in this key point of differentiation.
Following the lead of Procter & Gamble, the world’s biggest consumer goods business
and the world’s biggest advertiser, there’s clear market acceptance that advertising builds
brands and sales by increasing revenue and profits, which in turn translates to better long-
term share performance. Where P&G leads, the market tends to follow.
Data will become increasingly important to brands in more and more categories,
particularly consumer goods and retail. In a post-cookie world, brands will increasingly
hoard and make best use of first-party data and deploy data smarter as a strategic asset.
The silos between traditional and digital media are breaking down. Press (national
newspapers, magazines, and regional newspapers) and out-of-home advertising all
generate more than 70% of revenue from digital versions of their media inventory. TV is
a laggard, but there’s growing evidence that linear TV – still a strong delivery medium –
will generate a larger and larger share of its revenue from digital.
Three grey swans for tech
Ian concluded his presentation by highlighting what he characterised as three “grey swans”.
1. Big tech will come under increasing pressure from politics.
2. Social media is in long-term decline.
3. The winners in subscription video on demand will be tech players. Apple and
Amazon have war chests of cash that dwarf those held by Disney and Netflix. They’ve
also started to use that cash to buy content and sports rights, and this will put increasing
pressure on Netflix – which, Ian believes, Microsoft will buy in the near future. You read
it here first!