We are six weeks into 2023, and there is still much trepidation about what the year ahead will bring. International bodies such as the IMF, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum are forecasting recessions and economic volatility across the world. That volatility means decreased consumer confidence and buying power, and increased supply chain costs.

Marketing in this context can be challenging, with pressure to cut costs and drive value from every cent spent. Having access to high-quality insights when making media investment decisions is crucial in order to make every dollar work as hard as possible. It is with that in mind that we have released our annual Inflation Report. It details our media inflation forecasts for 2023 and explores the economic and industry context behind those forecasts.

Below we have highlighted some of our key media inflation insights from the report – but there’s so much more in the report itself, with analysis, explanation and exploration. Read and download it here.

Key media inflation insights

• Globally, all media will inflate in 2023, but at a lower rate than over the last few years.
• TV in particular will inflate more slowly than in 2021 and 2022, raising the possibility that it is starting to stagnate. This could be because of the drift of TV budgets into other channels, or because 2023 is a quiet year on the sporting and political fronts.
• Magazines and Newspapers are expected to inflate globally in 2023 for the first time in a few years.
• TV inflation in the US is expected to drop versus 2022, while inflation for all other media will remain consistent with 2022 levels.
• The top five markets in EMEA (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain) are forecast to see media inflation of less than 5% overall. High inflation in Russia and the Baltics is increasing the overall media inflation figure for EMEA.
• APAC is the only region that is forecast to see slightly higher overall inflation than in 2022.
• APAC is also the only region in which TV is not the most inflationary medium – Online Video inflation is forecast to be slightly higher than TV.
• LATAM has the highest media inflation of all the regions, at 8.4% – although this is driven largely by rampant inflation in Argentina.

Quarterly media inflation updates

For the first time in 2023, we will be releasing quarterly updates to our media inflation forecasts in 10 key countries. Follow us on LinkedIn or subscribe to our mailing list to be the first to see them.

If you would like to discuss the findings of the report with one of our senior management team, or how to optimize your media investments to drive higher media value in these challenging times, please contact us on value@ecimm.com