Businesses in the UK are expected to spend £6.8bn on seasonal advertising during the final quarter of this year, according to figures from the Advertising Association and WARC.
Each year in the lead up to Christmas the market has grown, with spend up 4.7% on last year’s record.
In the final quarter of 2010 advertisers spent £4.3bn, with that figuring rising to more than £5bn by Q4 2015 and reaching £6.45bn by 2018.
“Christmas is the biggest time of the year for brands and retailers and they recognise the power of advertising to tell a story that will capture the public’s imagination and tempt them into store or online,” said Stephen Woodford, chief executive of the Advertising Association.
“This year looks set to be a ground-breaking year for adspend and, at £6.8bn, the figure would be an increase on last-year’s, which was itself a record. We’re hopefully looking forward to a season of goodwill for British advertising and the national economy as brands and retailers invest in festive adverts like never before.”
Some brands have already jumped at the opportunity to begin their Christmas campaigns, with the likes of Asda and Argos launching their TV ads last week.
However, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), last year saw the worst Christmas for retailers in a decade. Total retail sales were flat during December 2018, and were down -0.7% year-on-year (YoY) on a like-for-like basis.
Meanwhile, a report from Barclaycard revealed that consumer spending in December experienced its lowest rate of growth since March 2016, up just 1.8% YoY.
