UK ad spend set to rise this year, as web increases market share

The modest rise comes despite nine consecutive quarters of year-on-year decline. according to new figures from the Advertising Association (AA) and Warc.

Total UK ad spend for full year 2009 is now expected to be down 12.7% year-on-year representing the worst recession for the advertising industry since the quarterly survey began in 1982, the data found.

Internet and cinema advertising were the only two mediums to record actual ad spend increases in Q3 2009, up 4.2% and 10.2% respectively.

The internet, including search, now accounts for almost two thirds of all classified advertising.  Across all areas of advertising, the internet’s share gain of 4.2 percenage points is mainly at the expense of press – which fell by the same amount. 

Although the internet has outperformed all other advertising media, it is not recession-proof, rising unemployment meant expenditure on all forms of recruitment advertising – including online – fell in 2009. 

Tim Lefroy, chief executive of The Advertising Association, said: "The underlying data shows not just the painful recession effect overall but the dynamic reshaping of the UK advertising landscape.  For some it's the perfect storm, for others the perfect opportunity."

Rufus Olins, chief executive of Warc, added: “There is clear evidence that the UK ’s worst media recession in three decades was bottoming out by autumn 2009, and prospects for a return to growth in ad spend later this year are now good. However, as recent UK economic data has shown, the recovery is still fragile.”

The AA and Warc predicts that when full-year 2009 actual spend stats are published next month, the data will show that total recruitment advertising fell by 40% year-on-year in 2009, and online recruitment ad spend saw declines.

Sources:
www.adassoc.org.uk
www.warc.com