"The Global Marketing Index (GMI) 2021 shows a consistent overall increase in growth throughout the year, which culminated in November recording the highest Global Headline Index value since the inception of the report in 2011,” says Zoe McCready, senior research executive, Warc.
“This reflects an industry that is largely weathering the impact of the pandemic as it rapidly adjusts to new trading conditions which point to the ongoing strength of digital and mobile channels driven by the continued rise of e-commerce,” adds McCready.
This is supported by further analysis from Warc Data, which show a 23.8% resurgence in marketing budgets across channels in 2021, valued at $771bn, with digital and mobile media up (41.9%), OTT video (41.6%) and search (39.4%). TV is up by 5.5% from last year and OOH up by 21.8%.
Despite this, markets in APAC have since recovered with marketing budgets and trading conditions showing a higher level of growth compared to Europe and the Americas.
However, the movement is not limited to the Americas as staffing levels in both Europe and APAC have seen an increased rate of growth in Q4. From August onwards, global staffing levels have seen the highest rates of growth since the inception of the GMI, with November and December at 65.3 (the highest index value). Consequently, this is likely to remain a challenge in 2022 as regions battle with factors such as Brexit, work life balance and the worker employer relationship.
Warc’s GMI provides a unique monthly indicator of the state of the global marketing industry, by tracking and analysing current conditions among 1,000+ marketers, including marketing budgets, trading conditions and staffing levels. This is accompanied by additional analysis from Warc Data.
The GMI 2021 is available to read in full here