Feature: Ad Revenues In Need Of Boost After Weak Q1
Things have been looking up in the media industry in recent months, topped by the World Cup sparking a rash of tie-in media sponsorship deals and, along with Big Brother and the Jubilee celebrations, providing some healthy TV ratings stories.
The upturn- if that’s what it turns out to be- will take a while to materialise in figures, however. The latest data from the Advertising Association’s Quarterly Survey of Advertising Expenditure for the first three months of 2002 show that the industry is not out of the woods yet, seeing a 6% year on year decline in advertising revenue for the period, with hefty falls particularly in areas of press advertising.
Press advertising remains the most popular destination for advertisers’ money, attracting a total of £1,653m over the quarter, although this was down 9.3% year on year. The next largest sector was Television, followed by Direct Mail and Outdoor. Radio remains the smallest media sector by adspend to be included in the Advertising Association Survey.
Revenue in the Outdoor sector took one of the hardest hits in percentage terms, falling 10.8% to £145m. The sector saw a 3% year on year decline in revenue during 2001 (see 2001 Decline In UK Adpsend Led By TV) and it is feared that the estimated revenue this year will be reduced because of the continued delay to the launch of Viacom Outdoor’s London Underground XTP system (see XTP System Will Not Launch This Year).
While total press advertising faced a decline of 9.3% during the quarter, within the sector fortunes were mixed. Among the National Newspapers, which have just seen the advent of a new tabloid pricing war (see Mirror Brings Partial End To Price Cut) revenue saw a 17.4% decline to just over £500m, but Regional Newspapers commanded revenues of £731m, a 0.7% increase year on year. Consumer Magazines saw only a 2.1% year on year decline in revenues, to £184m, while Business Magazines suffered a 21.5% decline in ad revenues compared to Q1 2001.
Television saw a 6.8% fall in revenues, while Radio got off fairly lightly with a 0.7% decline, giving credence to the view that as a more cost effective medium it attracts advertising in times of belt-tightening budgets.
The only real winner, then, among the media included in the survey by the World Advertising Research Center, was Direct Mail, which saw a 5.8% year on year increase in its revenue over the quarter, attracting a total of £630m in revenue.
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