Report: Ad Execs Optimistic For 2015

In another encouraging sign for the advertising economy, the optimism of ad executives -- both marketers and agency counterparts -- is at its highest level since an industry researcher began tracking it seven years ago, according to MediaPost.

The data, which comes from the Perception Group’s Advertiser Optimism Index, is based on the self-reported perceptions that ad execs have for increasing or decreasing their ad budgets in the next 12 months.

It comes as some ad industry forecasters, particularly Interpublic’s Mediabrands’ Magna unit, predict 2015 will see one of the best rates of ad budget expansion in years, due largely to economists’ predictions that consumer spending -- an important bellwether of advertising growth -- will once again surge next year.

The data should come as relief for big agencies and big media, which have experienced an erratic year of advertising demand so far this year. But not all major media should be optimistic -- particularly print media, which the majority of ad executives continue to be pessimistic about.

The overall index, which measures the index point spread between the percentage of ad execs saying they plan to increase spending vs. the percentage planning to decrease spending over the next 12 months, stands at 25, up from 21 six months ago.

However, the index for magazines and newspapers is a negative 4 and 17, respectively.

The greatest optimism continues to be for digital media, especially mobile. The mobile media index stands at a positive 43, while “digital” (a catch-all for online, social and mobile media) is a 41.

With a positive index of 21, cable TV is the next most optimistic ad medium, followed by broadcast TV (6) and radio (3).

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