Gov’t ad spend increases to over 150m

The Government increased its advertising media spend by 15.4% to £156.9m in the year to April, with digital expenditure rising sharply by 57.6%. The latest figures were revealed in the COI’s annual report.

As predicted by Marketing Week (July 17), the Government has broken the £150m barrier in advertising spend, pushing it up as one of the UK’s biggest advertisers. Its overall marketing spend was also up, rising almost 16% to £391m.

Digital media expenditure now stands at £35.4m, which is a 57.6% increase on the previous year.

Alan Bishop, chief executive of the COI, says: “From events and direct marketing to research and digital, both COI’s established and newer channels have shown growth over the year. However, as a proportion of our overall turnover, advertising spend continues to decline.”

During the 2007-08 period the COI worked on a number of high profile government campaigns on issues including tobacco control, army recruitment, road safety and climate change.