UK companies' marketing budgets grow at second-slowest rate in 2 years - survey

According to the latest IPA Bellwether report, conducted by IHS Markit, the UK companies’ marketing budgets growth the second-slowest since Q1 2016 due to Brexit uncertainty.

Key Findings via Reuters:

23 percent of marketing executives raised their budgets during the quarter, while just under 17 percent of executives who took part in the survey cut their marketing budgets.

The resulting net rise of 6.5 percent was higher than an increase of 5 in the previous quarter.

IPA’s Director General Paul Bainsfair said, “Despite this overall positive growth, however, with continued Brexit uncertainty, the underlying story still remains one of caution, with the latest Bellwether data pointing to the second-slowest marketing budget growth since Q1 2016.” 

Around 300 UK marketing professionals, primarily from Britain’s top 1,000 companies and across all key business sectors, were interviewed for the survey.

The report showed that Brexit remained a dominant theme for respondents, with a number concerned about the general uncertainty caused by the negotiations and how this might affect business and consumer confidence.