Ad spend will rise by 3.2% in 2008, says report

Ad spend in the UK is to increase by 3.2% in 2008 despite the gloomy economic outlook, according to the Advertising Association’s (AA) Advertising Forecast. The report shows that spending is up from last year across most media.

The internet will continues to see the largest growth and spend is up by 21.3% from last year although this has led to a dip in spend on press advertising. National newspapers have seen a 1% drop in spend and regionals have seen a decline of 2%. Magazines have also taken a hit with consumer magazines seeing a 1.2% decline in spend and business-to-business titles reporting a 0.8% dip.

Outdoor and transport reported the highest increase outside of online with growth of 5% compared to 1.6% for cinema and 1.4% growth in radio. TV spend remained level with a slight increase of 0.8%. However, better-targeted e-mail ads and environmental issues drove spend on direct mail down by 2.5%.

The report, published today, also predicts the growth will continue to a rate of 3.3% in 2009. It researched and compiled by the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC).