Citing the impact of the global Coronavirus pandemic, eMarketer has revised its global ad forecast for 2020 downward by $20.3 billion to $691.7 billion. 

“Note that our forecast was completed on March 6, before U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 30-day ban on the entry of most Europeans into the US, which temporarily halted the stock market. Also note that the projections represent a full-year outlook,” eMarketer said in the alert published this morning.

“Our downward revision is primarily due to one country: China, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak,” the report continues, noting, “The first case was discovered there in late December 2019, so we have had more time to track the virus’s impact on the country’s ad market.”

The global ad revision is due largely to a reduction in China’s 2020 advertising output, which eMarketer now projects will reach $113.7 billion, down $7.43 billion from its previous estimate of $121.13 billion.

“China is the world’s second-largest ad market after the U.S., so a reduction in our China estimates would lower our global forecast,” eMarketer explained, adding, “We have also downgraded China’s 2020 ad spending growth rate to 8.4% from 10.5% due to a reduction in spend across all media formats, including digital.”