UK adspend rose 5.8% year-on-year to reach £6.0bn in Q2 2019, marking UK advertising’s 24^th consecutive quarter of market growth. Adspend over the first six months of 2019 was 5.2% higher than a year earlier, at £12.0bn. These figures are contained within today’s Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure Report, which is unique in its collection of advertising spend data from across the entire media landscape.

The report shows adspend growth for 2019 is forecast to rise 5.0% and reach £24.7bn, with the UK’s ad market expected to grow a further 5.3% in 2020. The predicted full year growth figure for 2019 is an upgrade of 0.4 percentage points on the figure forecast at the last release of adspend data in July this year.

Overall market growth is being driven by increased spend on online advertising, which saw rises across most formats. Digital ad formats for radio broadcasters witnessed a year-on-year rise of 15.9% and online national newsbrands recorded growth of 15.6% over the same period. Digital out of home – not included in online totals – experienced growth of 17.2%.

The report reveals particularly strong growth in Q2 2019 compared to Q2 2018 in TV video on demand (VOD) and cinema. TV VOD saw an increase of 20.0% in Q2 2019 while cinema recorded a very impressive rise of 49.6%. The sector benefited from the entry of a number of new advertisers in comparison to the same period in 2018, boosting growth substantially.

Stephen Woodford, Chief Executive, Advertising Association, said: “These very encouraging adspend figures for Q2 2019 cover the period immediately following the original Brexit date of March 29, demonstrating the continued strength of UK advertising during a time of political uncertainty. Advertising’s dynamism is shown by the growth recorded across many different formats, with particularly impressive performances from cinema, TV VOD and online radio. These figures are positive for our industry and are good indicators of the resilience of the UK economy. However, with another scheduled Brexit departure date looking likely to be passed on 31 October, we are acutely conscious of industry’s desire for the clarity and needed to continue investing for the future during these uncertain times.”

James McDonald, Managing Editor at WARC, said: “An upgrade to our 2019 projection of almost half a point is reflective of stellar online growth, as well as over-performance for a number of traditional channels against the expectations we laid out in July. There is little in the data we receive from media owners across the industry to suggest an impending downturn, but growth cannot be taken for granted while economic prosperity remains in the balance.”

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The Advertising Association is today launching a new report, Advertising Pays: World Class Talent, World Class Advertising, and a campaign aimed at protecting the advertising and marketing industry post-Brexit by championing access to global talent and to celebrate the immense contribution of international talent to the UK.

The new report, in partnership with LinkedIn, reveals that a diverse international workforce is central to the UK’s position as a global advertising and marketing hub.

Analysis from a pool of 328,000 LinkedIn members who work in advertising and marketing in the UK gives detailed insights into how international talent plays a pivotal role in the UK’s creative success. It also demonstrates that the UK is a key source of talent for other advertising hubs worldwide.

With widespread uncertainty around talent moving to and from the UK post-Brexit, the Advertising Association is warning that the UK’s creative crown is in jeopardy.

The proportion of the current advertising and marketing workforce in London that has migrated here from abroad in the last 12 months is three times higher than the corresponding figure in New York; it is also higher than in Paris and Amsterdam. More than a third of this talent comes from within the EU, with many others arriving from the United States and Australia.

Unsurprisingly, London is a hub for advertising and marketing talent – in fact 6% of LinkedIn members in the London area work in the industry. However, despite London’s global reputation for advertising, more than half (57%) of the industry’s UK workforce is based outside of the capital. Manchester is the largest of the city hubs.

The UK also supplies a huge amount of talent to other international advertising hubs. The UK is the number one source of international advertising and marketing talent in New York, Paris and Amsterdam and has provided more than a third of recent migrants to Sydney’s advertising sector.

James Murphy, CEO of adam&eveDDB and Chairman of the Advertising Association says: “The UK ad industry is a world-leader because we’re open to the world. It will be catastrophic to the long-term success of the sector if we can’t access the right talent quickly and easily. Global brands want to work with the best talent and the UK has it. As an industry that delivers £120 billion of GDP per year for the country, anything that knocks advertising will dent the economy.”

Josh Graff, UK Country Manager at LinkedIn, adds: “I have experienced first-hand what makes the UK such a creative powerhouse – the people. We’re a wonderfully diverse and international workforce that enables brands and their agencies to create campaigns which resonate across international, cultural and socio-economic boundaries. I hope that this report, informed by LinkedIn‟s powerful data, can not only help employers make better decisions about their talent pipelines but that it will also inform policy makers and educators on what’s required to ensure the sector continues to thrive.”

Created by the Association in collaboration with agency adam&eveDDB, the ‘A Great Advert for Britain’ campaign is based on photo portraits of individuals from overseas working in advertising, with a message that they are ‘A Great Advert for Britain’.

The ads will appear on posters, online display advertising and in the press, in media space donated by media owners in support of the campaign.

Stephen Woodford, CEO of the Advertising Association says: “Our new report, informed by LinkedIn’s powerful dataset, highlights immigration as the most important area for Government support to maintain the UK’s position as the world’s leading global advertising hub and drive growth domestically. Our new campaign, ‘A Great Advert for Britain’, brings this important issue to life. We have been working closely with the relevant Government departments on measures to safeguard and promote UK advertising internationally, as well as stimulate further growth in the regions among SMEs. We will continue to make the case to Government for funding and support in these areas.”

Alongside its campaign, the Advertising Association has met with the Migration Advisory Committee, an influential non-departmental advisory body, to share the report findings to help inform plans for access to talent post-Brexit.

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