UK ad spend drops nearly 10% in final quarter
Total UK advertising expenditure fell by 3.9 % in 2008 but plummeted 9.6 % in the fourth quarter.
Newspapers have seen the biggest drop in adspend, down 12 % on 2007, continuing a trend which saw adspend drop 0.3 per cent in the previous year. In contrast, Cinema has shown itself to be the most robust “traditional” medium, with a drop of 0.9% compared to a rise of 9.8 % in 2007.
The figures come from the latest research compiled by the World Advertising Research Center (WARC) on behalf of the Advertising Association.
Television saw a reversal of gains made in 2007. Adspend on the medium fell 4.9 % last year compared to a rise of 2.8 per cent in 2007.
Radio and Outdoor also saw gains in the previous year wiped out with Radio witnessing an 8.5 % fall in adspend compared to 3.4 % growth in 2007, Outdoor fell 3.8 % compared with a 4.6 % rise in 2007.
Direct Mail slightly arrested its decline, dropping 6% compared with a 6.5% fall in 2007.
As expected, Internet adspend continued to grow but its rate of growth has more than halved. It grew 39.5 per cent in 2007 and 17.3 per cent last year.
The figures are in line with the sharp decline in consumer spending witnessed at the end of last year. In December the British Retail Consortium reported retail sales had dropped for the second consecutive month http://www.mad.co.uk/Main/Home/Articles/ed7de42917644bca81cfd346260a906d/Retail-sales-fall-two-months-in-a-row.html and like-for-like sales had dropped for six consecutive months.
