Marketing budgets in the UK up slightly in Q3
18 Oct 2010
Marketing budgets in the UK were up slightly during the third quarter of the year but advertisers remain cautious about their prospects, says the latest IPA/BDO Bellwether Report.
In the third quarter total marketing spend was up only 0.5 per cent, which came as an improvement in the 4.6 per cent decline in the second quarter. The Bellwether said however that this was slower than the rise in the first quarter.
Though marketers were positive about their own companies, optimism about the financial outlook for their own industries among them fell from a net positive of 2 per cent in the second quarter to a net positive of just 1 per cent. This was the lowest figure registered in five years.
The slight increase in marketing spend came on the back of a 5.3 per cent hike in traditional media budgets and internet display advertising growth of 13.3 per cent and search marketing which registered an increase of 9.9 per cent. Direct marketing budgets however rose by 6.8 percent the fastest rate in four years.
However, according to Bellwether, sales promotion spend was down by 4.2 per cent while 'other categories'' fell by 3.6 per cent.
Though the reports strikes a cautious note on 2010 on the whole, it suggests that slight improvement in the third quarter meant that "marketing spend for 2010 as a whole may still rise".
According to Rory Sutherland, the IPA president and vice-chairman Ogilvy Group UK, the latest figures were grounded in hesitancy rather than absolute pessimism.
He added that even though the upward revisions to marketing budgets were only slight, marketing budgets had to be stabilised.
