The UK’s advertising landscape has experienced robust growth, surpassing forecasts with a 13.4% increase in Q2, driven by a digital boom.
- This growth stems from digital formats, making up 80% of ad spend, alongside the use of programmatic approaches and AI tools.
- UK adspend for the first half of 2024 reached £19.6bn, prompting forecast upgrades for the year ahead.
- Online display and search ads have considerably expanded, while TV saw its strongest quarter in years, boosted by sports events.
- The advertising sector’s role in the economy and cultural funding is emphasized, reflecting its essential function in supporting significant events.
The UK advertising sector displayed significant progress in the second quarter of this year, achieving a 13.4% rise in expenditure to hit £10bn, exceeding expectations. This momentum is primarily attributed to a pronounced surge in digital advertising. The digital segment accounted for a substantial portion of the spending, with 80% allocated to digital channels, predominantly through programmatic means and increasingly utilizing AI tools for efficiency gains, as noted by James McDonald of WARC.
The robust performance of the online sector, particularly in the first half of 2024, sets the UK advertising market on a trajectory for its best performance post-2000, barring the 2021 pandemic recovery surge. The Ad Association and WARC’s latest expenditure report indicated a 13.5% increase in ad spending in the year’s first half, amounting to £19.6bn.
In response to these developments, the AA/WARC has revised its 2024 predictions upward, projecting UK ad spending to surpass the £40bn threshold, an uptick of 2.9% to £40.5bn. This suggests a yearly growth rate of 10.6% with real-term growth anticipated at 7.9%, highlighting the market’s dynamism.
Delving into the specifics, online display spending jumped by 21.6% and search ads increased by 12.7%, while out-of-home advertising grew 17.0%. Television broadcasting benefited from a 9.0% rise, the best quarterly performance in over two years, driven by popular sports fixtures like the Men’s Euros.
For the first time since the pandemic rebound of Q2 2022, regional newsbrands and magazines saw expenditure boosts of 1.9% and 0.5%, respectively. Stephen Woodford from the Advertising Association underscored the sector’s pivotal role in propelling UK economic growth, fostering competition, and funding culture, media, and sports. Advertising remains a cornerstone of the nation’s economic ambitions, aligning with government goals to achieve sustained growth among the G7 nations.
The UK advertising industry’s thriving performance highlights its pivotal role in economic expansion and cultural support.
