In July, the IPA’s latest Bellwether report revealed that the rate of decline in UK marketing spend decreased for the second quarter in a row.
The Q2 report said this was helped by an improvement in business confidence, with companies surveyed reporting that their financial prospects have improved for the first time since the first quarter of 2008 (see
Q2 Bellwether Report).
ZenithOptimedia released a global ad forecast, predicting an 8.5% decline this year, with the UK set to suffer a 10.5% fall (see ZenithOptimedia revises down global ad forecast).
China is forecast to grow 5.4% this year, overtaking the UK to become the world’s fourth-largest ad market, while India grows 7.7% and overtakes Norway, Mexico and the Netherlands to become the 14th largest.
Strategy Analytics forecast that the total advertising sector in North America is expected to decline 10.2% in 2009 with the online advertising sector down 3.2% (see North American ad sector to fall 10%).
The report added that Central & Latin America will to be less affected by the global financial crisis than the developed world.
Focusing on the US, Magna latest forecast predicted that US ad revenues will decline by 14% this year (see Magna forecasts 14% drop in US ad revenue).
Magna said that ad revenues will fall from a total of $189 billion in 2008 to $161 billion in 2009.
Towards the end of the month, research from Econsultancy and Clash-Media revealed that 53% of marketing budgets for UK, European and US companies increased in the past year (see Marketing budgets showing increases)
This extra budget is being used to fund high-return Online Lead Generation campaigns, the report found, with 61% of spend now made online, compared to 51% last year.
The UK will see just 0.9% growth in online adspend this year, according to eMarketer, however (see Low growth predicted for UK online adspend this year).
Karin von Abrams, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, said: “In 2009, online ad spending has been hit harder than most UK marketers thought possible even a few months ago.
“Budget cuts have affected all industry sectors, including many that contributed significantly to online ad spending, notably banks and financial services, automotive and retail.”
