UK Ad Spend Predictions Revised To 3.3% To Reflect Strong Growth

There has been a revised forecast for UK advertising spend in 2013 and 2014. The study, conducted by Advertising Association/Warc Expenditure, is reflective of the more positive outlook for search and TV advertising in the country, along with the better economic prospects for the UK next year.

According to the researchers, advertising spend will improve by 3.3% this year, against an earlier projection of just 2.6%. The report also predicts a 5.2% increase in advertising spend in 2014, which is 0.3 percentage points more than what was predicted in July.

In money terms, advertising spend in the UK will hit £17.7 billion in 2013, before reaching an all-time high of £18.7 billion in 2014.

The AA and Warc noted that UK advertising spend in the first half of 2013 was £8.54 billion, following a 2.3% growth in 2012 when total spend reached £17.2 billion. Growth in the six-month period was fuelled by Internet pure play, which exhibited a strong year-on-year increase of 16.3%. Mobile, in particular, improved by an impressive 128%, while advertising spend on search jumped 18%. Out of home increased by 3.1% and TV advanced 2.1%, also helping counterbalance the drops in other media formats such as newsbrands and magazine brands, which suffered respective drops of 7.4% and 7.5% in advertising spend. Cinema and radio also displayed large declines of 9% and 6.6%, respectively.

Internet advertising will be still the most responsible for growth in spend for the entire year, and is now expected to register a 13.2% improvement in 2013.