TV advertising revenue in the UK reached a record high of £5.27 billion in 2015 – marking the sixth consecutive year of growth, according to figures provided to Thinkbox from UK commercial TV broadcasters.
Up 7.4% year on year, TV advertising managed to outpace total UK market growth of 6.1%, accounting for 26.9% of all advertising.
The continued growth has been fuelled by increased investment in all major marketing categories, with significant growth coming from online companies, which invested over £500 million in TV in 2015 – up 14% compared with the previous year. Google, Facebook and Netflix currently spend an estimated 60% of their marketing budgets on TV advertising.
Elsewhere, motors increased TV spend by 18% to £318 million, finance by 17% to £428 million and household FMCG by 14% to £199 million.
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In 2015, there were 877 new or returning advertisers on TV, with notable newcomers including Facebook – the year’s biggest new TV advertiser, investing £10.8 million – gaming company Machine Zone (£6.6 million) and online estate agent Agents Mutual Ltd (£5.9 million).
According to data from BARB, Procter & Gamble was the most viewed TV advertiser in 2015 with 30.5 billion views, followed by Sky with 21.2 billion views, Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser each with 20.3 billion views, and Mars with 16.4 billion views.
Together, the 877 advertisers accounted for 2.3% of total TV ad revenue.
TV advertising at a glance:
– Commercial TV reaches 92.5% of the UK every week (BARB, 2015)
– An average broadcast TV campaign in the UK (of 400 TV ratings) gets 234 million views (BARB, 2015)
– TV advertising £ for £ has the highest return on investment with an average of £1.79 profit for every £1 invested (Ebiquity, ‘Payback 4’, 2014)
– 87% of TV in the UK is watched live (BARB, 2015)
– There are 17 million conversations about TV advertising every evening in the UK (BARB/Thinkbox, 2015)
