Events remain a strong contender for quarterly marketing budgets, ranking second for growth in the most recent Bellwether report from the IPA.
The quarterly study, which analyses marketers’ confidence and budget choices, found that in Q3, overall marketing budgets had failed to grow for the first time in 14 quarters.
The imminent Autumn Budget and uncertainty surrounding what policy announcements may come from the new Chancellor has prompted a more cautious approach to marketing spend, resulting in the number of marketers who revised their budgets upwards now matching those that have implemented cuts.
For Q3, events still have a net balance budget expansion of +9.9% compared with +17.2% in Q2 and a record-breaking 23.1% in Q1. This marks the eleventh quarter in a row that the events segment has posted growth, with 30.2% of survey respondents recording upward budget revisions.
In comparison with other growth forms of marketing, events outperformed direct marketing (+9.7%) and sales promotion (+3.2%). Budget allocations for market research dropped to -1.5% while PR saw the most significant upward revision, with the net balance soaring to a record high of +11.0%, from +2.6% in the previous quarter.
Main media advertising experienced a second consecutive quarter of budget increases, with the net balance climbing from +3.5% to +4.3%, indicating the strongest growth in a year. The breakdown by sub-category showed that this growth was driven by big-ticket video campaigns.
A strongly positive net balance of +11.7% of surveyed firms recorded higher spending on video-related marketing activities. This was up from +7.8% in the second quarter and the highest figure since Q4 2022.
IPA director general Paul Bainsfair said: “Looking to the positives, this quarter’s results reveal that companies aren’t cutting their marketing budgets; they are pressing pause until they know more about the Government’s economic plans. As clarity emerges, this may indeed prove to be a temporary dip in overall marketing spend rather than the start of a long-term downward trend.
Building on this, it is worth noting that our ad spend forecast has been revised up for 2024 and 2025 because the economic data has been so strong so far this year, and that main media growth strengthened to a one-year high while sales promotion budget growth slowed – both of which are signals of bullishness.”
The next Bellwether Report will be released on 16 January, 2025
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