A new report suggests that the advertising industry is heading towards a robust growth period, marked by increased spending, strategic brand investment, and innovative uses of AI, with advertisers experiencing more confidence in backing AM/FM budgets – especially compared with TV.

The 2024 Advertising Outlook Report by Mediaocean draws from a survey of more than one thousand marketers, and found an anticipated surge in advertising expenditure. While the highest levels of growth come on social media, radio and audio see fewer marketers planning to lower ad spend on the medium than in 2023.

From 2023 to 2024, the growth expectation slightly faltered, from 25% to 24%, but 54% plan on maintaining their previous OTA radio budgets, up 3% year over year. Of the  marketers surveyed, only 22% plan to decrease audio advertising – down 2% since 2023.

Over the air television, however, tells a different story. While national and local TV are seeing a modest uptick in those wishing to increase ad spend, 36% and 33% say they will cut TV ad budgets, marking the decline far greater than the growth factor. Print is also noteworthy for its decline.

The resurgence of brand advertising is another significant trend for 2024, as companies prioritize long-term brand equity over immediate conversions. The emphasis is on customer loyalty and leveraging an omnichannel approach that challenges the dominance of large tech firms, potentially reshaping the advertising terrain towards a more equitable playing field.

After an intense focus on creative generation and large language models, the industry’s approach to AI is pivoting towards its capabilities in data analysis and process optimization. This is a direct response to the need for enhanced first-party data utilization due to signal depreciation and cookie decline, with AI becoming crucial in identity resolution and probabilistic targeting.