Strong showing in digital as UK ad spend rises

Cinema saw the greatest growth in advertising, up 25.6% at £213m, although internet spend was the greatest at £5.42bn – a rise of 13.2%.

Television saw a 0.4% rise in ad spend to £4.48bn but, out of that, video-on-demand saw a massive 73.3% rise in spend to £104m in 2012.

The report changed its methodology for newspapers and magazines to reflect the move into online publishing and revealed that national newsbrands saw a fall of 6% to £1.53bn but with a strong increase in digital ad spend of 29.3% to £155m.

A similar story was to be found with magazine brands with a drop as a whole of 9.4% to £1.1bn but a 1.5% rise in digital to £235m.

Out of home ad spend saw an Olympic bounce with spending up 9.5% to £970m – gains that are likely to fall off this year and next.

The 2.3% rise in 2012 ad spend is predicted to be slightly up this year at 2.7% according to the report while a recovering economy in 2014 could see growth at 5%.

Tim Lefroy, chief executive at the Advertising Association said: “These figures are good news for our industries but there is a bigger picture. Advertising does not just track GDP, it drives it. The return to pre-recession levels of spending will have an impact not just on ad-land but the economy at large.”