advertising matters 27.4.18

A WARC on the wild side

The cream of Adland gathered together in the beautiful surroundings of floor 17 of News UK’s office at London Bridge yesterday (FYI – what a view!) for our first AA Front Foot Breakfast of the year. Guests were there for the always eagerly anticipated findings from the latest Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure Report, which revealed that UK advertising expenditure grew 4.6% to reach £22.2bn in 2017 – the eighth consecutive year of market growth!

Continuing the positive results for UK adspend, the final three months of 2017 saw expenditure grow 6.2% in Q4 2017 over Q4 2016, with adspend breaching the £6bn barrier for the first time ever in a single quarter to reach £6.1bn. The full year advertising growth forecast for 2018 has also been upgraded by 1.4 percentage points to 4.2% growth, and a further rise of 3.8% is expected for 2019. If proved correct, this will complete a decade of continuous expansion for the UK advertising industry.

Our Chief Executive, Stephen Woodford commented: “These very impressive adspend figures demonstrate the strength and resilience of the UK advertising industry over the course of 2017. To see adspend hit the £6bn mark in Q4 is a very encouraging result, as is the prediction that we will see 10 years of continued growth through 2019.”

The event also featured a great panel session facilitated by Assistant Business Editor of The Times, Graham Ruddick, and including Catherine O’Neill (EU Media Analyst, Citi), Siobhan Kenny (CEO, Radiocentre) and James Murphy (AA Chair and CEO, adam&eveDDB), who cast their expert eyes on the figures as well as the opportunities for advertising to export internationally and promote regional growth across the UK. You can read our full lowdown here and other coverage in The Drum and Mediatel. You can also see an interview with Stephen on CNBC here. Many thanks to News UK for being such outstanding hosts!

A celebration of CalADonia

The AA feted the success of the Scottish advertising industry at a reception at Dover House, the home of the Scotland Office on Whitehall, on Tuesday. The event centred on the Ad Pays Scotland report from advertising’s think tank, Credos, which highlights the huge £8.8bn economic contribution of advertising to the Scottish economy and the over 40,000 jobs that depend on the sector north of the border.

Guests, who included Westminster parliamentarians and industry figures from Scotland, were welcomed by our Chief Executive Stephen Woodford and then heard from Lord Ian Duncan, Under-Secretary of State for Scotland and Brian Coane, Chair of Front Foot Scotland and Partner at ad agency Leith. Lord Duncan praised the ‘tangible benefit and great good’ advertising does for the Scottish economy through selling Scottish brands to the wider world. Guests also had an exclusive preview of a new video celebrating the talent in our industry in Scotland, where they tell their own stories about what makes the Scottish ad industry so special. The video will be launched wider publicly later in the summer, so keep your eyes peeled!

Eoseo oseyo!

That’s ‘welcome’ in Korean for those unfamiliar with the language of Hanguk. We were very pleased to welcome a delegation made up of 23 public officials in the city planning department of various local government bodies in South Korea to AA HQ on Wednesday.

The visitors discussed activating business through outdoor advertising and how to use outdoor advertising as alternative ways to cope with a diversified media environment. AA Business Development Manager Jeanette Taylor spoke to them about the association, our work, and why the UK is a global hub for advertising. Jeanette spoke alongside marketing body for the UK OOH sector, Outsmart, and global association for the OOH industry, Fepe International.

You’ve read the whole thing, now check out our ad of the week!