Marketers See Slight Uptick In 2013 Budgets

According to a recent study, marketers in the UK are a little more upbeat about the new year, as they anticipate an overall growth in advertising budgets and a brighter financial future for their companies when compared to 2012. Their hopes, however, could eventually crash as the country’s economy is still unstable and consumer confidence continues to wane.

These are the conclusions one can draw from the Bellwether survey by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), which examined the attitudes among marketers at 300 firms, Marketing Week reported. As much as 17% of the sample said that they hiked their spending on advertising in the last three months of 2012, whilst 16% of marketers said that they cut their budgets. The resultant net balance is 1%, which is considerably higher than the -5.5% recorded in the previous quarter.

As a whole, marketers prepare to have higher advertising budgets this year, but they are planning quite small hikes, with the initial increases being some of the smallest recorded over the last 12 years, the report’s author Chris Williamson noted. This means that businesses remain broadly cautious when it comes to lifting marketing expenditure because of the disappointing sales and profits that companies suffered last year, coupled with the dim economic prospects both at home and globally, he said.

The poll further revealed that 28% of marketers were positive that 2013 will bring improvements in the performance of their own companies, while 22% have become more downbeat about the prospects of their businesses. Still, the net balance of 6.8% represents a strong uptick over the -3% recorded in the previous three months and is also the highest in three quarters.