UK ad-market set for best year since 2008
January 16, 2014
The UK advertising market is set to have its best year since the pre-recession days of 2008, fuelled by the economic recovery and an anticipated advertising blitz this summer during the football World Cup in Brazil.
The latest IPA Bellwether report found that advertisers raised their budgets for a fifth quarter in a row in the final three months of 2013, ahead of a flurry of marketing budget increases this year.
“The Bellwether survey indicates that marketing budgets are set to rise in 2014 to the greatest extent since 2008 as the UK’s economy recovery becomes more entrenched,” said Chris Williamson, author of the report. “The survey showed increasing numbers of companies setting their budgets higher than 2013 on the back of very buoyant optimism about their financial prospects.”
The report found that in the fourth quarter last year a net balance of 11 per cent of companies surveyed said they were spending more, the second-highest level seen in the 14 year history of the report. The net balance is arrived at by subtracting the percentage of companies reporting a budget decrease from the proportion reporting a budget boost.
A net balance of 25.8 per cent of companies are expecting to increase budgets again this year, the highest level since pre-recession 2008.