Hark, the herald angels sing! Total UK ad spend will rise this autumn, after nine consecutive quarters of annual decline, according to an Advertising Association and WARC forecast.
The rise is modest – Q3 2010 is predicted to be 2.8% up from the year before. But it’s heartening after last year, when total ad spend fell 12.7% from 2008 in the worst ad recession since 1982, according to the AA and WARC.
Internet ad spend finished the year to September up (4.2%) – but far less than in previous years, and by less than cinema (10.2%). They were the only two media to attract more ad money in 2009 …
In fact, the internet’s share of total UK ad spend rose by exactly the same amount as newspapers lost (4.2%). Coincidence? Probably not – especially in time of recession, brands that wanted to keep on advertising flocked to a medium with greater guarantees and more metrics …