NEWS17 July 2014
UK — The Q2 2014 IPA Bellwether Report has revealed that marketing budgets have been revised up for a seventh successive quarter.
Source: IPA
The quarterly report, now in its 14th year, revealed a net balance of +15.2% of companies registering an increase in budgets during Q2 2014 which, despite being lower than the Q1 2014 record of +20.4%, is the second highest reading recorded in the survey’s history.
This rise was reflected, to varying degrees, across all categories except market research, which recorded a -2.4% downward revision to budgets.
Denise Turner, managing partner and chief insight officer at Havas Media believes this reflects the natural pattern of investment: “Market research is a vital tool in the marketing director’s armoury, giving them the confidence to make those big decisions about increased marketing investment,” she said. “As such the investment in market research often comes before the increase in investment.
“We are seeing a sustained increase in advertising investment, no doubt as a result of previous investment in research. It is pleasing to see that investment in market research is remaining relatively steady over time.”
The report outlines that the ongoing upward trend in marketing budgets reflects companies’ continued optimism regarding their own and wider industry financial prospects: the report data showed the net balance of companies indicating growing optimism with regard to their company’s financial prospects was at +37.5%. The figure for wider industry optimism was at +33.0%.
With regard to actual spend, the final data for the 2013/14 financial year showed that a net balance of +19.9% of companies had registered an increase in marketing budgets: the highest percentage since 2004/5.
Full results can be found on the IPA website.