Mobile drives growth in UK advertising spend
The Drum reports on recent figures from the Advertising Association/Warc, which show that mobile and online advertising spend drove the continuation of growth in ad spend for the first quarter of 2013.
Ad spend was up by 2.4 per cent in total to £4.14bn with new forecasts predicting total growth of 2.6 per cent in 2013 and 4.9 per cent in 2014, according to the report. Internet spend was driven by the growth of mobile advertising towards an 11.1 per cent increase, while TV spot and cinema advertising were also up 5.6 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively.
Chief executive of the Advertising Association, Tim Lefroy, said: “A pound spend on advertising returns six pounds to GDP. “These figures don’t just reflect growing confidence, they represent an important investment in the recovery.”
The sharpest fall was felt by the publishing industries, with ad spend down by 7.9 per cent for newspapers and 11.6 per cent for magazine brands. Declines in the sector are expected to slow down as digital revenue increase throughout 2013/14. Direct mail was down by one per cent and radio fell by 2.9 per cent. Out of home spend grew by a small 0.1 per cent, however, it had been expected to go into decline following the Olympics.
