U.K. Adspend Records First Half Gains

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Advertising expenditure in the U.K. rose by 13.5 percent in the first half to reach £19.6 billion ($25.4 billion), according to the latest Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure Report.

In the second quarter alone, ad expenditure topped £10 billion, the report notes, a 13.4 percent increase and just over four percentage points ahead of the previous forecast. As such, AA/WARC has upgraded its overall 2024 forecast, projecting adspend to hit £40.5 billion ($52.5 billion) for the first time.

In the first half, TV gained 5 percent, with a 9 percent jump in Q2. For 2024 as a whole though, the report anticipates a flat 0.9 percent growth rate. However, BVOD is surging, with a 16.8 percent gain in the first half, 14.2 percent in Q2 and 12.1 percent for the year.

UK advertising spend is expected to register annual growth ahead of key European markets, such as France, Spain, Italy and Germany. For 2025, AA/WARC projects ad expenditure of £43.1 billion, a 6.5 percent gain.

Stephen Woodford, CEO of the Advertising Association, said: “The advertising industry is once again driving U.K. growth, helping businesses to compete, promote innovation and support jobs. It is an essential engine of the economy and key to the Government’s central ambition to achieve the highest sustained growth in the G7. Advertising has a vital role in funding culture, media and sport—and the results of Q2 show how advertising can play a fundamental part in supporting the success of events such as the Men’s Euros, the Olympics and the Paralympics.”

James McDonald, director of data, intelligence and forecasting at WARC, added: “Four in every five pounds spent on advertising so far this year has gone towards digital formats, money which has mostly been committed programmatically and which is increasingly leveraging AI tools for further efficiencies. The strong growth across the online sector in particular during the first half of 2024 has put the U.K.’s ad market on course for its best year since the millennium, if the post-pandemic recovery year of 2021 is discounted.”