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Events budgets are growing strongly
Event marketing
United Kingdom
Strategy
UK companies revised their marketing spend up once again in Q1 2024, with the latest IPA Bellwether Report showing events budgets expanding at the fastest rate on record.
Headline figures
- Almost a quarter (24.4%) of Bellwether panellists recorded an upward revision to their overall marketing budgets in Q1, compared to 15% that saw a contraction.
- The net balance fell to +9.4%, from +14.7% in Q4 2023, but this was still the second highest in almost two years.
By category
- Events was the stand-out category, recording a series-record expansion (net balance at +23.1%, from +15.9%) as companies continued to show a strong appetite for face-to-face engagement with customers.
- Direct marketing (+7.0%, from +12.6%) also extended its growth sequence, albeit with the upturn cooling slightly from its previous multi-year high.
- Sales promotions budget growth (+4.9%, from +1.4%) gathered further momentum in the opening quarter of 2024 – a possible red flag since overuse of promotions can undermine a brand’s profit margins and pricing power.
- Expansions of a marginal nature were seen in market research (+1.4%, from -5.0%) and PR (+0.6%, from +1.9%).
- Marketing budget declines were limited to just two categories in Q1, including the crucial main media segment (-0.7%, from +1.9%).
- Granular data on main media shows the contraction was driven by out of home (-10.8%, from -8.1%), published brands (-5.7%, from -1.4%) and audio (-4.5%, from -7.0%).
- This slightly offset growth in other online (+7.1%, from +13.2%) and video (+0.8%, from +6.6%).
Future plans
- Four in ten (40.7%) panellists have lifted the total amount available for marketing, compared to 18% reporting cuts. The resulting net balance of +22.8% signals strong budget-setting for 2024/25.
- The main area of marketing budget growth for 2024/25 is set to be events, with a robust net balance of +18.7% of survey respondents anticipating an uplift in spend compared to the previous financial year.
- Main media advertising is also poised for budget expansion in 2024/25, with a net balance of +10.1% planning to lift available expenditure in this segment.
- Market research (net balance of -4.4%), however, is set to contract.
- The Bellwether forecast for adspend to decline in real terms remains little-changed at -0.5% for 2024 (vs. -0.7% previously).
Sourced from IPA Bellwether
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