Economic volatility stress-tests the global advertising market

The months-long closure of the Strait of Hormuz remains a serious test of global ad market resilience. WARC Media's Alex Brownsell and Kate Scott-Dawkins, Global President for Business Intelligence at WPP Media, join WARC's Anna Hamill to make sense of complicated dynamics for advertisers in 2026.

Guests:
Kate Scott-Dawkins, Global President for Business Intelligence, WPP Media
Alex Brownsell, Head of Content, WARC Media
Anna Hamill, Senior Editor - The WARC Podcast

Chapters:
00:00 – Intro: WARC Global Ad Spend trends
02:43 – Why ad spend is booming while consumers feel pessimistic
06:39 – Gulf crisis, oil prices & WARC scenario modeling for global ad growth
08:32 – Travel, auto and FMCG: categories most exposed to energy and inflation shocks
09:51 – Regional impact: Gulf, Latin America, Europe, SE Asia, US and China
11:00 – WPP vs WARC forecasts: cross-border advertising, AI investment and big media owners
13:40 – Inflation, pricing power and why the classic CPG playbook is weakening
16:50 – Generative search ads to 2030: search, social and retail media dominance
19:27 – AI gold rush: how advertising is funding big tech and AGI ambitions
21:28 – Future of retail media, AI-driven purchase journeys and resilient news publishers

For 40 years, WARC has been providing the marketing industry with rigorous, unbiased evidence and expert effectiveness guidance. The WARC Podcast publishes a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday.

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