Industry experts react to the Q2 2024 IPA Bellwether Report, where it was revealed that UK marketing budgets were revised upward at the highest rate in over a decade during the quarter.
Justin Reid, Senior Director of Global Partnerships Solutions, Tripadvisor
“The latest IPA Bellwether report is a welcome sign that the economy, and the advertising industry, may be showing signs of improvement. With growth comes opportunity, however, the cost-of-living crisis still has a lingering impact on consumer spending. As cited in the report, it is hard work to get people through the doors, meaning marketers have a huge job on their hands.
“On the flip side, the summer of sports is a reason for optimism for the travel sector. England’s final in the UEFA Euros 2024 is an example; Google searches for “flights to Berlin” shot up 712 per cent ahead of the big game. People are willing to travel for sport which presents a major brand opportunity.
“To capitalise on this, you need to know your audience. Whether they’re travelling with pets, attending sporting events, or embarking on solo adventures, gaining insight into who they are and how to reach them is essential. Despite the challenging macro environment, for travel marketers, investment in understanding your audience will lead to more effective campaigns.”
David Wilcox, Commercial Director, News Broadcasting
“We’re seeing a combination of a more positive economic outlook combined with some really powerful one-off events that have driven increased advertiser interest. The Summer of Sport has been a huge opportunity for brands and specialist media channels such as talkSPORT whilst the election has driven significant additional engagement for current affairs media like Talk and Times Radio.
“Whilst the rise in main media spend is encouraging for everyone in the market it’s clear that offering a diversity of channels, from digital and video through to audio and events, is vital if you want to answer the broadest range of client needs. News Broadcasting’s ongoing diversification to supplement our core audio business has enabled us to build bigger and more creative campaigns for clients that deliver across channels and audiences.”
Chris Falconer, Group Managing Director, McCann Central
“It’s great to see the IPA’s Q2 Bellwether results showing an improved performance and a brighter outlook. For our part, we’ve certainly noted an increase in activity across all of our McCann Central offices and growing demand for key services particularly social, B2B, PR and Media. We’ve also had a busy first six months in terms of new business and, with some big wins under our belts, we are confident about the second half of the year.”
Paul Wright, Head of Uber Advertising International
“The more upbeat outlook of the latest IPA Bellwether report is certainly cause for celebration. But brands should not forget the persistent economic pressures still weighing on UK households. Marketers must keep this in mind when planning their media, delivering ads to those most likely to spend.
“The key to this is quality, first-party data, which reflects audience buying intent and interests. When paired with relevant environments and exciting creatives, the right consumer can be served the right ad at the right time. The result for brands is better media and brand performance.
“This approach will serve marketers well during 2024’s big cultural moments, including the Bellwether’s highlighted ‘Summer of Sport.’ Brands can unlock strong returns by investing in solutions to gain insights into specific audiences attending these events. This will give them a better understanding of the purchasing journey, and ultimately the ability to connect with their audience through timely ads.”
Anna Forbes, RVP Northern Europe, DoubleVerify
“While the latest IPA Bellwether report indicates optimism for marketers despite the UK election, they are still faced with challenging news cycles in 2024. Whether that may be due to the newly elected UK government or the upcoming election in the US. Brand safety must therefore be at the forefront of media planning to ensure ads are not placed against content not aligned with their values. By investing in solutions that can maximise brand safety and suitability, UK advertisers can maintain media quality and drive performance.
“The potential that artificial intelligence holds for this is increasingly being recognised, with IPA Bellwether surveyees noting its rising impact. Using AI-enhanced tools, for example solutions that can analyse data signals including Contextual Relevance, Attention, and Media Quality verification efficiently, provides a substantial growth opportunity for brands. Prioritising the allocation of resources towards these solutions to ensure both brand safety and tailored, brand-specific outcomes should be a key focus in H2.”
Ellie Lane, Head of Client Strategy, Quantcast
“While the past quarter was one of political uncertainty in the UK, this doesn’t seem to have stopped brands from investing in performance advertising campaigns.
“Major events like the Euros have had a considerable impact on ad spend. Household names such as Lidl and BYD have invested heavily in sponsorship, while consumer brands have been using it as a launch pad for their campaigns at the start of the summer. Looking ahead, it’s likely this will continue with the Paris Olympics on the horizon.
“Although Google has delayed cookie deprecation until 2025, the momentum towards a cookieless future hasn’t stalled. We’re witnessing a strong movement towards advertising in cookieless environments, as brands increasingly realise the benefits of embracing the true scale of the open internet through measurable programmatic campaigns.
“Looking ahead, advertising spend is set to continue on this upwards trajectory throughout the rest of the year. The Olympics will showcase the power of international sporting events encouraging tactical brand activations. In addition, key spending periods like Black Friday, Christmas and Halloween (which seems to be growing in scale as a ‘brand moment’ each year) will supercharge ad spend. The increasing prominence of cultural moments such as Eid and Thanksgiving, particularly in supermarkets, will also drive increased activity.”
Hugh Stevens, Managing Director UK, LiveRamp
“The upswing in confidence indicated by the latest IPA Bellwether report is undoubtedly encouraging, but marketers should remain cautious and ensure they are allocating these expanded budgets based on data-led consumer insight. Indeed, there are some warning lights. While inflation has decreased, prices remain high and will continue to impact customer purchasing habits. Indicatively, squeezed household finances were highlighted as a threat by representatives within FMCG, Financial Services, Retail, and Travel and Entertainment. This has led to an increase in sales promotions, which experienced its third consecutive quarterly rise – the longest spell of growth since 2018. Such activity should be used sparingly, as a prolonged emphasis on discounted prices can damage long-term brand value.
“A more sustainable and effective approach lies in better understanding consumers, their journey to purchase, and the products and advertising experiences that are relevant to them. This can be done by making use of available insights within the business, in the form of owned first-party data. While no brand has a full 360 view of their customer, thankfully, today technology exists that means they can engage in data collaboration to make permissioned data accessible across business, and unite second-party datasets in a privacy-centric manner with their own via a data clean room to unlock rich consumer insight. This can be used to maximise the efficiency and ability of media plans to drive long-term revenue. With the pending deprecation of cookies putting a premium on first-party data, brands should investigate, experiment, and ensure they have the necessary soft skills in place to make the most of this data collaboration revolution.”
Phil Acton, Country Manager UK, Adform
“It is encouraging that UK businesses have significantly increased their marketing budgets, with Q2 seeing the highest growth over a decade. Now, advertisers must use this investment strategically and direct it towards solutions that can continue to deliver results beyond the phase-out of third-party cookies.
“While some advertisers may be hedging their bets on the Sandbox, the reality is that no solution is one size fits all. A combination of approaches- including first-party data and unified IDs- should be tested to ensure brands can effectively connect with consumers across all browsers and achieve optimal reach and performance.
“This will also serve advertisers well in capitalising on rapidly growing channels, such as video advertising, which the IPA Bellwether found as the second-best performing channel, with many companies reporting increased spending. Advertisers should also investigate the growing accessibility of advanced measurement tools, which can enhance control within video advertising, especially in Open Web environments and growing CTV platforms. Investing in these technologies promises game-changing results for performance and transparent reporting and will ensure they lead in this crowded space.”
Maor Sadra, Co-Founder and CEO, INCRMNTAL
“The Q2 growth is encouraging for the advertising industry, but what’s interesting – although not unexpected – is that brands are concentrating their efforts on digital advertising, specifically video. Spending on OOH, audio and published brands remains stagnant or in decline, and this is likely due to marketers’ concerns about measuring the success of their campaigns on offline or audio channels.
“However, it’s very possible to do both, and with the right solutions in place, brands can measure the value of every marketing tactic online and offline. This is key, because advertisers could be missing out on channels that would deliver high returns for their business. It’s only by testing a range of mediums and tactics that brands can understand their sweet spots and know where best to place their budgets.
“With Q3 populated by major sporting events such as the Euros, Wimbledon and the Olympics; high volumes of consumers have – and will continue – to tune into linear TV and radio. And with the summer holiday season upon us, we’re also likely to see an increase in people out and about, meaning that TV, radio and OOH should feature in all big brand marketing strategies this quarter. England may have lost in the Euros final but advertisers that leave these channels out could also suffer significant losses. Competitive advantage comes from testing campaigns across all relevant channels and effectively measuring the success of each in real-time.”
Ned Jones, Head of Advertiser Customer Success, Permutive
“Given recent macroeconomic challenges impacting spending, it’s encouraging to see marketing budgets are at their highest point since 2014. Brands must ensure they use these increased budgets effectively, reinstalling room in their media plans for always-on iterative testing where it may have previously been removed due to budget constraints. With reach across the open web sitting at just 30%, there is a need to address both the problem and opportunity that exists today to unlock incremental reach and access to 100% of their target audiences.
“For advertisers and publishers alike, the current state of the programmatic industry only brings chaos and uncertainty, which is further amplified by third-party cookie deprecation delays and workarounds. Waiting to see what happens and allowing someone else to solve the problem for you is not an advisable solution.
“The biggest opportunity lies in data collaboration and connectivity between advertisers’ target audiences, and publisher audiences. A number of innovative brands are already moving out of cookie-based buying and into leveraging publisher signals, and these brands see double to triple reach, increased sales, and reduced CPAs. The success is derived from using their budgets to reach untapped markets, and audiences at scale, and in turn, seeing an exceptional return on that ad spend. Publisher signals are delivering strong results for advertisers, their solution is available today, so why wait?”
Aleksandra Drozda, Head of Sales Development and Efficiency, RTB House
“With marketing spend in Q2 2024 experiencing the strongest rise in over a decade, brands need to prioritise AI as a way to target audiences effectively. The correct technology is essential for brands looking to optimise budget, in order to effectively enhance consumer experience, ad personalisation and precision.
“The report notes that with the rise of AI and the right tools harnessed correctly, brands should be better set up for success in the following quarter. That means driving growth and delivering maximum impact, without compromising on privacy. Educating marketers on how AI can assist them will be beneficial as they navigate the remainder of 2024 with an increased budget ahead of a significant year with Google set to remove third-party cookies.”
Elliott Clayton, Managing Director, Epsilon
“‘Change’ is the word of the month and it’s heartening to see investment creeping beyond shorter term activations. Marketers must martial their spend across online and offline environments that allow them to maintain a strong brand while also reaching in-market individuals at the right moment. Direct marketing has always been a fantastic example and increasingly we’re seeing those opportunities across newer environments like retail media.
“As budget growth begins to settle into a longer-term trend, the other area marketers must pay close attention to is their tech stack. Increasing budgets offer opportunity for new investments, but hastily pouring funds into disparate platforms that don’t integrate well leads to wasted spend. Stick to a coherent strategy – the whole should be more than the sum of its parts.”
David Shaw, Co-founder and CEO, Cedara
“The upward trajectory of UK marketing budgets will hopefully bring much-needed stability for the industry in H2.
“Indeed, it’s encouraging that the Q2 2024 report cites opportunities in digitalisation and sustainability, as they should complement each other and not be implemented in isolation. It’s well-known that the digital marketing industry has a massive impact on the environment, so marketers must plan accordingly to ensure they partner with vendors that reduce their emissions.
“If we want marketing budgets to remain healthy, we must ensure the overall health of the industry for generations to come.”
James Hill, CCO, EXTE
“The latest IPA Bellwether shines a much-needed beam of optimism for the second half of 2024. With upward revisions across all marketing activity, there will be no excuse for not investing in strong creative within contextually relevant content for marketers keen to drive awareness and brand efficacy.
“As the report cites artificial intelligence (AI) as an opportunity to deliver growth and market share, it also highlights the viewpoint of businesses that see AI as a threat based on the potential of clients using it to replace other services with. Nevertheless, forward-thinking brands are leveraging AI to boost their creativity and innovation, recognising it as an opportunity to enhance their products and services.”
Alex Pym, Chief Commercial Officer, EMEA, Acxiom
“It’s great to see UK marketing budgets growing again after the recent economic downturn which saw nearly half (45%) of businesses changing their marketing priorities. Data intelligence-led marketing strategies are what give brands the competitive edge they need to maintain customer trust and ultimately feed a business’ bottom-line, but it takes both smart investment and strategy.
“In today’s hyperconnected world, people interact in real time with brands through multiple offline and online channels, expecting highly personalised and connected experiences with brands that are aligned to their interests and values. In fact, nearly half (47%) of the people surveyed by Acxiom said they are more likely to click on an advert or email if it contains personalised content.
“These interactions form a priceless cache of data which, with the right investment in tools and talent, can be leveraged to gain valuable insights, create a meaningful customer journey and improve speed to revenue. So, for the majority of brands that are yet to truly realise the full value of their customer data, this uptick in marketing budgets should be the trigger to evaluate their customer intelligence strategy to fully maximise marketing ROI.”
Mateusz Rumiński, VP of Product, PrimeAudience
“It is interesting to see that marketers are focusing on artificial intelligence, and what they must learn about it, in this year’s IPA Bellwether report. The technology behind Generative AI in particular is still in its early stages, but the speed, as well as its ability to digest data, cannot be ignored. Across everything from creatives, audience targeting, and campaign optimisation, the possibilities of Gen AI will soon be seen in some of the biggest ad campaigns.
“With marketing budgets looking so strong going into the second half of the year, brands need to be considering the best uses of AI wherever possible. In fact, 46% of UK and US marketers consider AI important as a tool for reaching audiences post-cookie deprecation, according to PrimeAudience data. The fact that cookie deprecation is delayed cannot put people off, with the need for privacy-focused approaches to marketing more important than ever.
“We are at the start of a digital advertising revolution, and the role that AI, in particular Generative AI, will play in this cannot be ignored.”
Lucy Bristowe, CEO, UK & Western Europe, Kantar Media
“The outlook is brightening for UK marketers. With greater certainty in domestic politics and inflation falling, the stage is set for brands to plan for growth. However, we need to keep things in perspective. TGI data from Kantar Media shows that a large proportion of the public are still struggling financially. In particular, those we identify in TGI Lifestage categories with dependents (e.g. ‘Playschool Parents’) or those renewing mortgage deals at higher rates. Marketers need to understand where their audience is feeling the pinch so they can design and deliver more targeted campaigns. That is why we’re seeing investments nudge up in market research. If marketers can use research and data to identify audiences and target their campaigns effectively, no doubt they will justify this optimism.”
*This article features clients of Bluestripe Communications, owned by Bluestripe Group, publisher of NDA
