Digiday’s 2022 Media Agency Report Analysis: The state and future of the media agency, client spending, staffing and beyond

Watch the full discussion here:

Watch analysis of 2022 client spending:

Watch analysis of expected 2023 client spending:

Watch analysis of spending by media channel:

Watch analysis of spending by client category:

Watch analysis of programmatic media spending:

Watch analysis of agency experiments with Web3:

Watch analysis of agency expansion of digital practices:

Key takeaways:

• Slightly more agencies said clients increased than decreased media spending in 2022.
• Nearly one half of agencies (49%) expect client budgets to increase in 2023. Of those that expect increases, 44% expect the increases to be a conservative 10-19%. 
• Digital display/websites and social media are the top media channels for spending increases in 2022 and 2023.
• Agencies are staffing up e-commerce, retail media and data practices as they anticipate continued digital spending and deprecation of the third-party cookie.
• Flexibility to adjust budgets and media channel placements dependent on the economy, the supply chain and wild-cards like elections and Olympic Games will be key in 2023. 

Expert analysis:

“I’m hearing of the potential of a V-shaped recession, where if 2023 starts off on a bad foot, it’s going to be a steep decline in spending, but then by the second half of the year it’s going to bounce back up and spending will return. So, that 10-19% increase that most of the survey respondents said could end up getting there, but the first half of the year is going to look, I think, considerably more bleak.” — Michael Bürgi, senior editor, media buying and planning