- Apple used it's Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday to announce that it is making changes to its ID for advertisers (IDFA) solution. The updated solution, which will effectively take the form of identifier for vendors (IDFV), will require app developers to obtain permission from each individual user to track them via Apple's AppTracking Transparency Framework. Developers will not be able to access any device information, such as location data, without the user's explicit consent. Firms that fail to get the necessary permission will be unable to display targeted ads, or to share any user information with third-party ad networks or through a third-party SDK. The introduction of a hard opt-in for tracking will give Apple more control over how advertisers track and measure users across its devices, spelling potentially dramatic implications for the industry at large.

- GroupM's Brian Wieser has extended his ad spend forecasting beyond the regional reports released last week, publishing a global mid-year report. The latest report provides a global perspective of the ad industry's health for the rest of 2020 up to mid 2021. Brian forecasts that global ad spend will fall by 11.8% in 2020, but recover by between 5.9% and 8.2% in 2021 (depending on when US political spend falls). The report also predicts declines across almost all major markets this year, followed by modest-to-small recoveries in 2021, with only Indonesia expected to experience growth in 2020 (+5.8%). The report asserts that out-of-home (OOH), print, and audio will experience falls of between 23% and 25%, with digital expected to see a milder decline of 2.3%. Digital extensions of traditional media are also expected to see ad spend tumble, but it will recover gradually to achieve 16% of overall ad spend by 2024.

- Covered in ExchangeWire earlier this week, a report by TV ad measurement and attribution firm iSpot.tv has found that gaming brands are struggling to reach audiences via TV advertising. Despite an increase in spend, impressions have consistently fallen, declining by 22.3% since mid-May. Whilst the finding strengthens concerns over the shape of linear TV viewership, it also raises questions about how gaming companies will approach advertising in the future - will they begin shifting spend to CTV and streaming in order to capture their audiences?

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