According to ZenithOptimedia’s new Advertising Expenditure Forecasts, global adspend will grow 4.9% to reach US$545 billion in 2015. The global economy is expected to improve (the IMF predicts 3.8% global GDP growth in 2015, up from 3.3% in 2014), but advertising faces a tough year-on-year comparison after the Winter Olympics, World Cup and US mid-term elections in 2014. Adspend growth will therefore be slightly below 2014’s 5.1%. 2016 will be a quadrennial year – with the Summer Olympics, US Presidential elections and the UEFA European Football Championship – and we expect these events to propel adspend to 5.6% growth that year, before it slips back to 5.2% in 2017 in their absence.