LONDON: The marketing outlook continues to improve around the world, with net budgets rising in April for the fourth month in a row, according to Warc's latest Global Marketing Index.
The headline Global Marketing Index (GMI) reading, which combines trends observed in trading conditions and staffing levels as well as marketing budgets, stood at 56.5 in April, on a scale where values above 50 indicate a positive trend.
This marked a slight decline on the previous month's figure of 56.9 but remains the fourth highest value recorded since the Index began in October 2011.
Within the global average, some regional differences were apparent. While the index for marketing budgets rose to 52.9 globally in April from 52.4, this was largely driven by a third consecutive month of growth in Asia Pacific which recorded a value of 53.5, up from 51.2 in March.
The Americas remained the region with the strongest outlook on 54.8, but this had dropped slightly from the 55.4 recorded the previous month. Asia Pacific experienced its third consecutive month of growth on 53.3, while Europe was static from March on 50.5.
But Europe overtook Asia Pacific for the first time when considering trading conditions. Europe rose from 57.9 in March to 58.2, while Asia Pacific dropped from 59.5 to 56.4 over the same period.
The Americas remained the most confident about trading conditions, registering an index value of 61.8 in April, slightly lower than last month's reading of 62.3.
The final component of the headline GMI metric – the index of staffing levels – remained positive at 57.3 globally. Again, the index figure for Asia Pacific dropped below that of Europe.
"The GMI data for April show that business conditions are continuing to improve," said Suzy Young, data and journals director at Warc. "These results are encouraging for global marketers."
The headline Global Marketing Index (GMI) reading, which combines trends observed in trading conditions and staffing levels as well as marketing budgets, stood at 56.5 in April, on a scale where values above 50 indicate a positive trend.
This marked a slight decline on the previous month's figure of 56.9 but remains the fourth highest value recorded since the Index began in October 2011.
Within the global average, some regional differences were apparent. While the index for marketing budgets rose to 52.9 globally in April from 52.4, this was largely driven by a third consecutive month of growth in Asia Pacific which recorded a value of 53.5, up from 51.2 in March.
The Americas remained the region with the strongest outlook on 54.8, but this had dropped slightly from the 55.4 recorded the previous month. Asia Pacific experienced its third consecutive month of growth on 53.3, while Europe was static from March on 50.5.
But Europe overtook Asia Pacific for the first time when considering trading conditions. Europe rose from 57.9 in March to 58.2, while Asia Pacific dropped from 59.5 to 56.4 over the same period.
The Americas remained the most confident about trading conditions, registering an index value of 61.8 in April, slightly lower than last month's reading of 62.3.
The final component of the headline GMI metric – the index of staffing levels – remained positive at 57.3 globally. Again, the index figure for Asia Pacific dropped below that of Europe.
"The GMI data for April show that business conditions are continuing to improve," said Suzy Young, data and journals director at Warc. "These results are encouraging for global marketers."
Data sourced from Warc
