M&W SATURDAY SUMMARY: Double-Counting Advertising, Chocolate Industry Update, TV’s 1Q26 Trends in the US and Europe + More
Save the Date! This year’s annual Chocolate Marathon will take place in Paris on Sunday June 28 starting at 10:00am. Please contact us if you are interested in joining this free event (email brian@madisonandwall.com)
For more information about what, exactly, a chocolate marathon is (there is no running, but lots of chocolate), go to https://chocolatemarathon.com/
Relatedly, our annual chocolate industry overview was published this week, and it’s available here
On this week’s M&W Podcast we review our work of the week as we always do – but this time, with special guest WPP Media’s Kate Scott-Dawkins! Separately, on Agency Business from Madison & Wall and Fusion Front Media, Brian and Olivia interview Crispin’s CEO Magie Malek .
Weekly Work:
Another Tailwind for Headline Advertising Growth: The Same Dollar Can Show Up More Than Once
Total U.S. TV Ad Revenue, Cord Cutting, Consumer Video Spending Analyzed + Versant 1Q26 Results
Europe Sees Ongoing Pressure in TV Advertising
Fox: Sports, Tubi, and Fox News Drive Strong Underlying Ad Growth
iHeartMedia, Viant, BuzzFeed: Growth Depends On Where You Sit in the Market
Dentsu, Globant, Hakuhodo 1Q26 Results + Dentsu in 10 Charts
More Context:
Most major companies have now reported 1Q26 results, and the picture is clear: the advertising economy is still growing at a very strong pace. It will likely exceed our already-high expectations for the quarter.
One key factor we continue to monitor is the way advertising dollars move through multi-step transaction chains, along with non-cash arrangements such as barter. It’s not new - we have been watching, accounting for, and adjusting for this issue for years in the major places where it shows up most clearly, including DSP owners, retail media networks, and large platforms with both owned inventory and technology businesses.
What is changing is the breadth of the issue. More companies are now combining media, data, technology, and managed services into a single advertising offer. As those partnerships spread across more of the ecosystem, the same underlying advertiser dollar can touch more companies before the campaign is delivered. Depending on how each company accounts for its role, parts of the same campaign or media exchange can appear in more than one company’s reported revenue.
Our industry-level growth already accounts for most of this impact. But as these business models spread beyond the largest and most obvious categories, it is becoming harder to isolate every instance. That means this transaction type is likely providing a modest boost to headline results.
The effect in total on our models is likely modest today, especially after the adjustments we already make. But it is one more reason advertising revenue can grow faster than the underlying base rate of consumption. It is also another reason market sizing requires constant analysis and cleanup rather than simply rolling up headline company results.