Exports of UK advertising services reached a record high of £19.4bn in 2025, securing the UK’s position as the world’s second-largest advertising exporter, according to the UK Advertising Export Report 2026.
The findings were published today at UK House during SXSW London by the Advertising Association and UK think tank Credos, and reveal a £4.2bn (up 38% year-on-year) UK advertising trade surplus and outpacing the UK services sector average.
The US remains the UK’s largest market, with exports reaching £5.5bn in 2025.
Aisling Conlon, international director for UK Advertising and the Advertising Association, said: “This report shows the immense scale of what UK advertising already delivers internationally, not only as an export sector in its own right, but as a driver of growth and commercial success for businesses across the wider economy.
“UK advertising does not need rescue. It needs recognition as one of the UK’s great global growth industries.”
The report also outlines a three-year plan focused on deepening the UK’s commercial presence in priority global markets, including the US, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.
The Advertising Association has issued a five-point blueprint to the UK Government to ensure the infrastructure matches the industry’s economic significance.
The first recommendation is to give the sector recognition in parity with screen and music in the government’s export support infrastructure.
The second is to actively signpost advertising and adtech businesses to the government support that already exists.
The third is to extend talent mobility commitments to fit working in advertising, and strengthen the UK-US creative partnership.
The fourth is to recognise advertising as an enabler of all other exports, and its final recommendation is to make the existing innovation infrastructure accessible to advertising and close the CoSTAR and Innovate UK access gap.
Julian Douglas, chair of the UK Advertising Export Group and group CEO of VCCP, said: “Pound for pound, the UK is the most respected creative advertising market in the world. But reputation alone doesn’t win business – presence does. The agencies that grow internationally are the ones who show up consistently, build relationships and stay visible in the market.
“The Advertising Association is building exactly that infrastructure, and this report makes the case for why Government needs to back it.”
