Golley Slater - London, UK

Rays of sunshine for UK marketing budgets

There is at last some good news for our industry when it comes to budgets. The latest Bellwether report, the UK’s industry monitor for marketing spend, has revealed that although overall marketing expenditure has shrunk for the eighth consecutive quarter, the rate of decline has significantly slowed down.
 
In Q3 2009, budgets were trimmed by 28 percent of companies compared to 13 percent reporting an increase: a ‘net balance’ difference of -15 percent. This compares to -28 percent in Q2 and the record low of -42 percent at the end of 2008.
 
These results paint a picture that is less bleak, but for some areas of marketing the outlook is positively rosy. Budgets for internet advertising have risen for the first time since Q2 of last year, a trend reflected in the continued growth of Golley Slater’s digital business.
 
Improvements have also been seen in main media advertising, which remains the largest category of marketing spend (accounting for around 30 percent of the total). Media advertising saw the smallest cut to budgets for six quarters although again saw a steeper rate of decline than both sales promotions and direct marketing.