UK advertising exports to increase by over 50 per cent in the next five years
The UK’s advertising industry’s contribution to national exports is set to increase by £2.5bn over the next five years, according to the latest forecasts from the Advertising Association.
The forecasts were announced following the publication of a new report from advertising think-tank Credos titled ‘Advertising Pays Four: The export and global impact of UK advertising’.
The report’s data lead the Advertising Association to predict that the UK will increase its contribution to national exports by 54 per cent (£2.5bn) over the next five years.
Currently the US is the global leader of balance of payments for advertising-related services — the difference between exports and imports — at £2.7bn while the UK resides in second with £1.6bn.
According to figures from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, most UK advertising services are exported to Europe (61 per cent), followed by North America (27 per cent) and Asia (11 per cent).
James Murphy, chairman of the Advertising Association and chief executive of Adam&EveDDB said: “It’s time UK advertising was recognised as a massive export success. The new data is proof that world-beating talent, award-winning creativity, digital leadership and a gold-standard self-regulatory model have built UK advertising into an exporting powerhouse that will continue to deliver for the economy.”
Credos director, Karen Fraser, added: “The latest Advertising Pays chapter has the data and case studies to make policy makers sit up and take note of what advertising does for the UK economy, in terms of both raw export power and British soft power overseas.”
The report also looks at the UK advertising industry’s global influence and reveals that British companies have won more Cannes Lions in the last decade than any other country except the US. In the last five years the number of awards accumulated by UK ad agencies has increase by 90 per cent.