UK adspend rose 5.8% year-on-year to reach £6.0bn in Q2 2019, marking UK advertising’s 24th 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.