Confidence may be slipping, but opportunity has not disappeared. For any brand shaping a media campaign Ireland strategy in 2027, the latest WARC findings suggest the market is not simply getting tougher—it is getting more complex, more automated and far more dependent on adaptive planning.
WARC’s new global research shows marketer optimism has fallen for a third straight year, with just 46% expecting business conditions to improve in 2027. Yet the outlook is not entirely negative. Ad budgets are proving more resilient than sentiment, and global ad spend is still forecast to grow. The real story for agencies and brands planning campaigns is that success will hinge on how well they respond to five major shifts: AI-led discovery, changing social media dynamics, the rise of short-form video, climate-driven behaviour changes and the trust gap around artificial intelligence.
