This year will see a “seminal crossing” for the UK ad industry as 50% of the nation’s overall marketing spend is set to go towards digital channels – far above the weighting in the US and other parts of Western Europe.
The latest forecasts from Strategy Analytics have 28% of US marketing spend going towards digital, which is below the global average of 30%. On stateside, 42% is to be spent on TV and 15% will be dedicated to print advertising.
UK advertisers have made it abundantly clear where they see the best value, opting for cuts of 24% and 16% for TV and print respectively. These figures are below rates of 39% and 18% across the world.
Digital drives growth
Digital’s chokehold on UK advertisers has tightened with every year, and 2015 will see a 9.5% rise in spend on internet-powered channels such as search, social and display compared to 2014. A 5.4% rise in UK ad spend as a whole means that cinema, TV, outdoor and radio will also see marginal increases year on year, but digital will lead the way.
Print is the only ad format to see a decrease in spend compared to 2014, dropping by 0.2%.
Leika Kawasaki, the report’s co-author, confirmed that growth in ad spend across Britain was leaving other markets to play catch-up.
“UK ad revenue growth looks particularly strong, growing at a 60% faster rate than the US and Western Europe,” she said.
“It’s certainly more encouraging for print in the UK, with only a marginal decrease compared to a hefty 8% decline in the US and a 3% decline globally. However, outdoor (about 5 times less) and radio will experience much slower growth in the UK than globally.”