War Knocks Media Confidence In The Short-Term

The war in Iraq has had a significant short-term effect on media industry confidence, with the majority of senior professionals expecting the UK economy to decline over the next three months.

The findings of a study carried out by the Media Guardian and NOP show that 51% of media owners, advertisers and media planners expect the economic climate to become increasingly volatile in the short-term, with just 4% predicting growth over the next three months.

This reinforces the findings of the IPA’s recent Bellwether report, which shows that UK marketing budgets were on average revised downwards in the first quarter of this year, with just 18.2% of marketers planning to increase their budgets over the coming months (see INSIGHTanalysis: Bellwether Sees Weakest Advertising Outlook Yet).

However, the long-term prognosis is more positive and the study shows that over a third (34%) of respondents believe that the economy will grow over the next twelve months. The number of media professionals expecting to see a decline fell to 33%, while 28% said they expect conditions to remain the same.

The war in Iraq has also had a notable effect on consumer attitudes and research from Weber Shandwick suggests that 39% of the British public are now more likely to boycott products in order to make a point about an issue.

Colin Byrne, joint chief executive of Weber Shandwick in the UK, said: “British opinion is less hostile to war, but what’s striking is that in general terms, British consumers seem to have become politicised.”

Last week the BBC claimed victory over its commercial rivals by revealing research which suggests that BBC1 has been the most watched news service during the war with Iraq (see 89% Of The UK Population Turn To BBC For Iraq News).

NOP: 020 7890 9000 www.nop.co.uk

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