UK firms increase advertising budgets in third quarter

UK firms have increased advertising spending budgets in third quarter despite Brexit, according to new research.

UK firms have increased their advertising spending budgets in the third quarter, according to the latest IPA Bellwether report. Researched by IHS Markit on behalf of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), the report is based on responses from 300 marketers from the UK’s top 1,000 companies.
It revealed that 13.4% of companies increased their budgets in the period. This was up from 10.7% in the second quarter and marked the highest levels in more than two years.
The finding is in contrast to IPA’s July report, which expected the spending budgets to decline going forward amid uncertainties caused by the vote to leave the European Union. The current increase now indicates that the Brexit impact on the sector was not as harsh as expected earlier.
Across segments, the report showed that spending budgets grew the most on events and the internet. However, it was noted that main media advertising declined, marking its first fall since 2013.

Commenting on this report, Matt Byrne, UK Director, FastPay, said; “In the second report since the Brexit outcome, it is promising to see that the anticipated growth is taking effect, with more than a quarter of marketers increasing budgets in Q3. However, small to medium sized and independent companies, especially adtechs, should not ignore marketers’ ever present concerns about the industry’s financial prospects and focus on finding ways to maintain growth and prosperity in Q4 and into 2017 to weather the forecasted 0.7% drop in adspend in these uncertain times.”
Read the full report here (registration required).