The 4A’s flagship conference, formerly known as Transformation, re-launched this spring as 4A’s Accelerate — a name that illustrates the speed of change required to thrive in today’s ever-changing marketplace.

Zenith’s latest predictions indicate global ad spend will grow by 4.6% in 2018, reaching $579 billion by the end of the year.

The Wow Company has released the 2018 agency benchmark report resulting from its annual survey of independent agency owners in the UK. Topics include profits, confidence levels, how agencies price, AI, Brexit impact, top challenges, and more.

MAGNA’s latest global advertising forecast indicates that global ad revenue is expected to grow by 5.2% to $535 billion in 2018, while US ad sales will grow 5.5% to reach $197 billion.

On March 6-7, Talent, HR and business leaders came together to tackle the real talent issues and explore practical solutions facing the industry today. This report shows highlights from the conference.

Prospect and PublicAffairsAsia share the findings from their survey of practitioners in the communications and corporate affairs industry in Asia Pacific.

Medialeader and Communicate, in association with Ad Age, have released the winners of the top creative agencies, media agencies, and campaigns in the the Middle East. The rankings are based on awards won at Cannes Lions, Dubai Lynx, Effie Awards and Festival of Media. Also, check out the separate ranking for the People’s Choice Awards.

Rakuten Marketing reveals five global marketing opportunities and fears for 2018.

The Future Today Institute forecasts emerging technology trends that will influence the advertising and public relation industry, as well as other sectors, in the year ahead.

EACA has published a guide to help European agencies learn how General Data Protection Regulation will affect targeted marketing campaigns and how personal data is to be handled. The publication provides a list of procedures that agencies can follow to become compliant and to minimize risks.

Dentsu Aegis estimates that global ad expenditures will grow to $589.5 billion in 2018.

What should advertisers and their agencies expect from each other in 2018? Bruno Gralpois of Agency Mania Solutions explores major trends.      

RSW/US’ annual New Year Outlook Survey Report explores biggest challenges facing ad agencies from the perspectives of both marketers and ad agencies.

Kantar Millward Brown discusses media and digital predictions for 2018

GroupM has released its latest worldwide ad spend forecast with a prediction that global ad spend will grow 3.1% in 2017 and 4.3% in 2018. US, China, Argentina, Japan, India, and the UK are expected to be the drivers of growth in 2018.