Time for advertisers to fast-track agency contract compliance audits

The advertising industry has a spring in its step as we approach the end of Q1 2021. All agency groups, most industry associations and analysts, and many advertisers are predicting a strong rebound one year on from the unwelcome arrival of COVID-19. 2020 will always be remembered as the most turbulent and disrupted year in living memory, with more campaigns cancelled, suspended, and postponed than commentators could have predicted in the worst doomsday scenario.

Media investment in Australia declined by 20% and by 14% in New Zealand in the year ending September 2020. These were two of the biggest falls in major English-speaking markets, more even than the UK (-13%) and the US (-9%), even though the pandemic affected those countries more severely. One of the major causes of shrinkage included the postponement and cancellation of many of the year’s major sporting – and so media – events. These included races in the lucrative Formula 1 series and the Tokyo Olympics, whose rescheduling for this year remains under threat.