UK advertising sector continues to flourish and hits a new record

The latest Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure Report data reveals the UK adspend reached £5.6bn in the second quarter of 2018, hitting the 20th consecutive quarter of market growth.

This record investment means that 2018’s full-year outlooks have risen to +6.3% while the prediction for 2019’s is now +4.9%. The growth would lead to a total projected adspend of over £23.5bn for 2018 if the trend continues.

“It's fantastic to see our world leading advertising sector continuing to flourish” says Margot James, Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries, “the industry makes a huge contribution to the UK economy, and its international reputation for creative excellence is playing a vital role in helping to bang the drum for Britain abroad".

Driven by an increased spend on online advertising, this channel continues to grow and full-year projection figures have reached +13.3% growth this year. Bringing the UK to a £13bn spent on online advertising. As James McDonald, Data Editor at WARC highlight: “Growth in online advertising spend continues to exceed our expectations, resulting in the fifth upgrade to our forecasts in as many quarters”.

The TV market has overtaken the expectations as well, with a total spend of £1.2bn: spot advertising, rose for the third consecutive quarter, and the 1.4% growth rate was ahead of forecast.

In conclusion, as Stephen Woodford, Chief Executive at the Advertising Association explains “spend on advertising is showing real strength and resilience especially at a time of some uncertainty for UK business [but] while we welcome these figures, we are also conscious that our upgraded predictions for 2018 and 2019 depend on getting the right deal from Brexit negotiations and clarity on what the future will look like.”

To find out more: AA/WARC adspend figures 2018.