'New Opportunities' Among Fog for Britain's Marketers

Marketing spend in the UK looks to be rising, despite the climate of uncertainty created by the Brexit vote in June, according to the IPA's quarterly Bellwether Report.

The report, published this week for Q3 2016, said the country's marketing budgets were 'revised up in Q3 2016 to the highest rate in over two years', reflecting continued investment in marketing. A net balance of +13.4% of companies registered an increase to their budgets in the quarter, up from +10.7% in Q2 (this figure is the balance on subtracting the percentage recording a downward revision from the percentage recording an upward revision).

On the down side, respondents considered the industry's financial prospects negative, with the net balance falling to -12.1% from -8.1% - the lowest figure recorded by the survey since Q4 2012. However when looking at their own company financial prospects, more than 31% of panellists have grown more optimistic, compared to less than 21% more pessimistic, for a net balance of +10.6%.

The authors of the report are now forecasting modest 2016 growth of +1.9% for adspend, although they expect 2017 to be more challenging, with a -0.7% decline.

Looking at results by sector, 'Internet' marketing budgets continued a seven-year upward trend with a figure of +9.5%, although the sub-category of mobile, reported for the first time, fell -2.6%. The figure for market research was down -2.3%.

Paul Bainsfair, IPA Director General, said marketers had 'held their nerve in the face of Brexit uncertainty', and concluded 'We are certainly living through interesting times'. Paul Smith, Senior Economist at IHS Markit and author of the Bellwether Report, commented: 'Given the widely held view of a challenging economic climate following the Brexit vote in late June, the latest Bellwether survey provides some welcome positive news with companies willing to raise and inject fresh resources into their marketing budgets during the third quarter. The outlook remains uncertain, especially when trying to understand what the impact of the EU referendum vote will be, and financial prospects have somewhat softened as a result. However, a number of companies are looking through the uncertainty and see a new range of opportunities for their businesses to grow and flourish with'.

The report is based on responses from a panel of around 300 UK marketing professionals.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.