Corporate ad spending grows at fastest pace in 13 years: IPA Bellwether report
17 Oct 2013
UK corporate advertising and marketing spending grew at its fastest pace in 13 years after being boosted by the optimism of firms from the UK economic recovery.
According to the IPA Bellwether report, 12.3 per cent of companies registered an increase in budgets for the third quarter, as against 7.3 per cent in the second quarter.
The increase in budget allocation marked the largest upward-revision of spending since the survey, which drew data from 300 companies.
According to IPA director general Paul Bainsair, the latest report indicated companies were beginning to move forward, away from and that the UK economy was on the rise again.
He added, the optimism would send a continued upbeat message to the advertising industry and wider economy.
The UK National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said the UK economy grew by 0.8 per cent.
Also one of the world's largest advertising agencies, WPP raised its 2013 outlook, after clocking a rise in revenues.
The IPA report also showed that there was a sea change underway in how companies allocated their advertising budgets.
UK companies allocated a higher portion of their marketing spending to the internet than ever before after 11.7 per cent chose to increase their coverage online.
Meanwhile, main media advertising also saw a second consecutive rise in growth.
But budgets for public relations, events and direct marketing all saw net reductions.
In terms of sector, the internet once again saw its budgets increased higher than any other category with a net balance of 11.7 per cent.
Within internet advertising online search, SEO spending saw a net balance up 7.7 per cent, even as media advertising saw a second successive period of growth, the strongest since Q3 2010 (3.4 per cent net balance).
As against this, the growth for direct marketing (-3.4 per cent), events (-1.1 per cent), market research (-3.0 per cent), PR (-1.7 per cent) and 'other' (-1.1 per cent ) all saw net reductions, indicating that companies continued to be prudent in their approach to spending.
According to Bainsair, the report indicated that companies were beginning to move forward away from the recession and that the UK economy was on the rise again.
He added, the optimism would send a continued upbeat message to the advertising industry and the wider economy.
According to Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit and author of the Bellwether report, the Bellwether survey added to the growing flow of upbeat data on the UK economy.
He added, marketing spending looked set to rise sharply as companies boosted their budgets to an extent not seen in the 13-year history of the survey.
