Hope For Recession End From IPA Bellwether

The IPA’s quarterly Bellwether report, published today in the Financial Times, has given more credence to the argument that the media recession is coming to an end, revealing that more of the 200 advertisers surveyed raised their current year marketing budgets in the first three months of this year, rather than cutting them.

Of those advertisers who had set marketing budgets for the new financial year, it was found that 27.6% are planning increased investment in media advertising, 48.3% are keeping budgets the same, while 24.1% will cut back. This means that there should be growth, albeit slow.

This is the first time that the movement has been in this direction since the first half of 2000: in the last quarter of 2001, following the World Trade Center attacks, 33% of marketers cut spending (see Bellwether Report Confirms Tough Q4 Measures).

The IPA, which commissioned the report undertaken by NTC research, is thought keen not to overplay the improvement, but the increasingly positive mood appears to be due to improved business confidence and sales performance.

The report also reveals that total UK marketing spend last year was £33.5bn. Of this 35% went on media advertising, 26% direct marketing, 24% to all other marketing including PR, event marketing and internet and 15% sales promotion. This shows a swing away from media advertising towards sales promotion, but it is thought that a move back to media will occur in the future.

Further analysis of the Bellwether report will be available to MediaTel Insight subscribers later today.

IPA: 020 7235 7020 www.ipa.co.uk

Recent Research Stories from NewsLine: TV Advertising Most Annoying, Says PPA Research IAB Reveals Europe’s Attitudes To Interactive Economist Researches Attitudes To TV

Subscribers can access ten years of media news and analysis in the Archive