âNae bad from an adâ

The latest addition of the Advertising Association’s (AA) ‘Ad Pays’ series focuses on Scotland, promoting the benefits of Scotland’s advertising to the wider economy.

The campaign uses the tagline ‘nae bad from an ad’ and the report shows the great contribution of Scottish advertising.

For every £1 spent on advertising in Scotland, £5 is returned to GDP – in turn supporting 42,000 jobs and , wages in the digital and creative sectors.

Advertising is worth 5.6% of the Scottish economy, a significant finding. £1.7 billion was spent on advertising in 2015 but the contribution to the economy came to £8.8 billion.

Scottish advertising exerts a powerful effect on the economy. It supports a substantial number of jobs as well generating significant sums for the national GDP.

Jobs are also created outside the industry and 7,000 jobs are directly supported by the advertising industry in Scotland.

The report also found that SMEs disproportionately benefit from advertising, where the effects of advertising are eight times greater than for larger organisations. Two-thirds of SMEs that advertise report a direct increase in sales.

It is a compelling case and Scottish advertising is clearly thriving.

Many of Scotland’s greatest exports owe part of their success to advertising. Take for example the long-running ads of the Famous Grouse whiskey brand, which is just one of successful whiskey brands that makes up a vibrant sector in Scotland.

As the AA say: “a wee bird on a bottle helps generate £8.8 billion GVA for the Scottish economy. Game changer”

Read the full report here.