UK online advertising suffered a record reduction in overall spend in Q109, according to the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising’s (IPA) quarterly Bellwether poll of 300 ad professionals. But the survey found that digital’s decline was still less than for mainstream print and broadcast media – and online’s share of ad spend has now risen to almost 10 percent. Release.
— Have we reached the bottom? There was no increase in UK ad spend in the quarter, but the survey found the decline has slowed since Q408, which saw the lowest ad spend increase in 0 years. The IPA is unchanged in its view that overall ad spend will fall year on year for 2009 – and Q109 still represents the second biggest decline in the survey’s nine-year history. IPA president Moray McLennan is confident enough to declare that “the bottom of the market has been reached”, but for many ad-funded businesses out there it certainly doesn’t feel like the end of a downturn.
— Confidence boost The report says Q408 was an “all-time low” for business confidence and the industry now thinks things are getting better: 14 percent of companies polled saying their prospects improved in Q109, compared to just five percent in Q408. When the companies reporting an ad spend increase were subtracted from the ones reporting a decrease in Q4, the net balance was -42 percent, but that figure rose to -34 percent in Q1. Starcom chairman Jim Marshall, chairman of media agency (also IPA Media Futures group chair), is more realistic: “This report doesn
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