Fourth Quarter Sees Boost To UK Adspend

The latest figures compiled by the World Advertising Research Centre for the Advertising Association show that outdoor was the fastest growing sector in the three months to December 2002, with expenditure increasing by 15.5% to £188 million. The sector ended the year on a high, with adspend improving by 1.9% to £690 million, as advertisers returned to using posters and billboards in force.

The recovery in television advertising also continued into the last three months of 2002, with expenditure increasing for the third consecutive quarter by 9.8% to over £1 billion. The industry, which has been hard hit by difficult economic conditions, experienced a 4.3% increase over the course of the year as a whole, with adspend for 2002 reaching more than £3.6 billion.

Radio saw its strongest growth since the final quarter of 2000, with advertising expenditure increasing by 3.1% year on year in the fourth quarter to £130 million. For the whole year, total radio advertising expenditure, excluding sponsorship, was £491 million, a slight increase of 0.8%.

Q4 2002 UK Advertising Expenditure By Medium
		Q4 2002 vs Q4 2001 % change
Category	Adspend (£m)	Current Prices	Constant Prices
National Newspapers	498	3.1	0.5
Regional Newspapers	702	2.8	0.2
Consumer Magazines	214	3.6	1.1
Business Magazines	278	-5.0	-7.3
Total Press	1,691	1.6	-0.9
– of which display	971	0.3	-2.2
– of which classified	719	3.5	0.9
Television	1,047	9.8	7.1
Radio	130	3.1	0.5
Outdoor	188	15.5	12.6
Direct Mail	667	3.9	1.3
Total Advertising	3,721	4.9	2.3
Source: Advertising Association, March 2003

Press advertising National newspaper advertising expenditure grew by 3.1% year on year during the fourth quarter to £498 million. Popular nationals registered an increase of 5% and quality nationals were up by 3.4% during the same period. However, for the whole of 2002, the sector was down by 6.4% year on year to £1.9 billion. Display and classified advertising fell by 6.1% and 7.5% respectively throughout the year.

Regional newspapers saw adspend increase by 2.8% year on year during the fourth quarter, to £702 million. Expenditure for the year as a whole grew by 1.3% to £2.9 billion, with dailies and Sundays experiencing 0.1% growth and free papers and paid-for weeklies seeing adspend improve by 1.1% and 4% respectively.

Advertising expenditure in consumer magazines improved for the second consecutive quarter in the three months to December 2002. This helped the sector to finish the year 0.8% up on 2001, with adspend increasing from £779 million to £785 million.

Business magazines had a less than impressive fourth quarter, with advertising expenditure falling by 5% year on year to £278 million. The sector was down by 9.4% for the year to £278 million.

The popularity of direct mail as a marketing tool continued into the fourth quarter of 2002, with advertising expenditure improving by 3.9% year on year to £667 million. For the whole of the year adspend grew by 6.7% to £2.4 billion.

2002 UK Advertising Expenditure By Medium
	2001		2002
Category	Adspend (£m)	YoY Change (%)	Adspend (£m)	YoY Change (%)
National Newspapers	2,063	-8.4	1,930	-6.4
Regional Newspapers	2,834	2.6	2,870	1.3
Consumer Magazines	779	3.9	785	0.8
Business Magazines	1,202	-5.4	1,088	-9.4
Television	3,525	-10.7	3,677	4.3
Radio	487	-9.1	491	0.8
Outdoor	678	-2.8	690	1.9
Direct Mail	2,228	8.7	2,378	6.7
Total Advertising	13,794	-3.3	13,908	0.8
Source: Advertising Association, March 2003