Articles

28.6.2010 Television to drive UK adspend growth

Television is set to be the main driver of growth in the UK advertising market this year, according to the latest AA/Warc Expenditure Report. The Expenditure Report estimates that ad spend levels in the country will rise by 3.3% to £14.98bn ($22.6bn; E18.5bn) in 2010.

This marked an improvement from the previous forecast, made in April 2010, which anticipated a more modest uptick of 2.3% this year. It also follows on from the expansion of 3.4% recorded in Q1 2010, which was the first such increase in six quarters.

Most media performed strongly in this period, with out of home revenues climbing by 14.6%, a figure that stood at 9.8% for television, 9.2% for the web, 8.7% for radio and 3% for cinema.

Looking ahead, TV ad sales should leap by 9.1% over 2010 as a whole, coming in ahead of the internet on 7.7%. Out of home, radio, national and national newspapers are also poised to experience growth in 2010 after a challenging 2009.

More broadly, display advertising across all formats is pegged to jump by 4.2% in 2010, with TV and online boasting a combined share of approximately 40% in the first quarter in this area.

In contrast, other classified advertising, led by online search, will generate an improvement of 3.9% this year. Overall, the web now accounts for 69% of all classified advertising.

Online also boosted its share of total ad spend by 3.3% in the year to March, with TV enhancing its position by 0.9% on this measure. However, cinema and online were the only forms of main media to have seen growth in their ad revenues during this timeframe, both up by over 5%.

Companies in all other major industries should commit more funds to advertising in both of these years, with the retail and consumables categories fuelling this process in 2010.

B.L. 28.6.2010