UK adspend is expected to grow by 5.4% this year, down slightly from the 5.6% forecast before the EU referendum vote, according to Zenith’s latest figures.
However, while the impact of Brexit has not been as catastrophic as anticipated, the 5.4% is almost half that of 2015, when UK adspend was up 9.2% – the strongest year for the UK ad market in 11 years.
In the long-term, Zenith says we should expect a slowdown in both economic growth and growth in ad expenditure.
In the short-term, uncertainty around the consequences of the vote is expected to make companies less likely to invest in new products, and consumers less likely to take on big spending commitments.
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According to Zenith, this could be anything from disappointingly slow growth to outright recession.
Adspend is performing solidly on a global level, however, with expenditure forecast to increase by 4.4% in 2016 to reach US$539 billion.
It is then expected to grow by a further 4.5% in 2017 and 4.6% in 2018 – both higher than original forecasts.
“So far the impact of the vote for Brexit has been limited, and confined to the UK,” said Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting at Zenith.
“The global ad market has strengthened over the past few months, thanks mainly to the resilient US consumer. We expect the global ad market to strengthen further in 2017 and 2018.”
