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We were grateful to the editorial team at Performance Marketing World, following the launch of the latest IPA Bellwether report, for asking our Founder and MD, Stephen, to provide some thoughts on the positive outlook the report provided for marketing within the UK.

Stephen was joined in commenting by a wealth of experts from companies across the industry, including Kantar Media, TripAdvisor, LiveRamp, Mindshare UK, Kepler, Wake the Bear, Cedara, Scope3, MikeWorldWide, and Elizabeth from our client, Pipeline360.

On reviewing the report in full, Stephen responded with his thoughts on what the news means for agencies like ours, as well as for the B2B tech start-ups and scale-ups that we serve. He also shared a feeling felt by many with the hope that this positive outlook might start to be felt more broadly across the UK.

“Digging into the detail of the latest IPA Bellwether report, the continued excitement around CTV is evident, with video budgets seeing the second highest net increase at 7.8%, behind other online activity, which was up 15.3%. It is, however, disappointing to see a forecast decrease in audio budgets by 5.5% for Q2, something I hope will be rectified as we enter the busy second half of the year.

“From our agency perspective, the successive increases in PR spend over the last year, rising by a net balance of 2.6% in Q2 2024, demonstrates brands continued faith in the ability of earned exposure to positively impact reputation management, brand awareness and salience.

“The IPA Bellwether survey respondents covers all sectors, but primarily draws from the nation’s top companies. As such, start-ups’ and scale-ups’ marketing activity will not be reflected. This sector’s ability to increase marketing expenditure is both a function of revenue growth and access to investment capital. Thankfully, previous investment stagnation seems to be lifting and we are seeing similar positive trends with marketing budgets amongst the B2B tech community we serve.

“The latest IPA Bellwether report provides a positive outlook for UK marketing expenditure, with budgets revised up at the strongest rate in over a decade and the second highest upward revision in the survey’s almost 25-year history. I hope this industry confidence starts to be felt more broadly across the UK, particularly by consumers who have been caught in a cost-of-living crisis for far too long. With a new government in place, inflation under control, and the hope of further interest rate cuts later in the year, early signs suggest this much-needed change is on its way.”

You can read all of the commentaries and more on the Performance Marketing Website – right here.