Marketers remain optimistic

LONDON: The global marketing community continues to be confident in the state of the industry, according to Warc's latest Global Marketing Index (GMI).

The headline GMI, which combines trends observed in trading conditions and staffing levels as well as marketing budgets, slipped slightly to 55.9 from 56.5 in May. But on a scale where values above 50 indicate a positive trend, the sector clearly remains optimistic about the near future.

Regionally, marketers in the Americas were most upbeat, with an index value of 58.6, the same as the previous month. Those in Asia Pacific were almost equally positive, recording a figure of 58.2, up from 56.7 in May.

Europe, with an index value of 53.0, was consistent with May's results. The region remains broadly positive in outlook as regards trading conditions and staffing levels, but is gloomy about marketing budgets, where the index continued a downward slide, from 49.7 in May to 48.3 in June,

Marketers in Asia Pacific, however, were bullish about budgets, as this index maintained its upward trend, reaching 55.5, the highest figure since the GMI began in October 2011. The Americas index slipped back from 58.0 to 56.3.

In terms of allocation of budgets by medium, the figures for digital (excluding mobile) and mobile indicated rapid expansion, with index values respectively of 72.9 and 68.8.

Other media sectors were stagnant or in decline, with TV on 50.4, press on 38.1 and radio on 44.7. Out of home, which had crept into positive territory last month, fell back to 48.5.

The other two constituent indexes of the headline GMI again performed well. The index of global trading conditions stood at 58.1 in June, one point down on the previous month but well ahead of the 54.1 recorded this time last year.

And the index of staffing levels was up 1.1 points to 57.1, with the Americas and Asia Pacific leading the way, both rising more than 2 points to 59.2. Europe, too, was up one point to 54.7, despite the pessimism over budgets.

Suzy Young, Data and Journals Director at Warc, said in a press release: "Globally, marketing budgets continued to rise in June but this stems from solid growth in the Americas and Asia Pacific. European marketers are less confident and have reduced budgets for a second month."

Data sourced from Warc, 20 June 2013

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