Advertising spend expected to top £21.8bn in 2019

Britain was buoyed by continued confidence in the sector despite uncertainty, thought it found a marked deceleration trend is now coming into play and looks set to continue into 2020 when growth is expected to fall to around 4.6%.

Growth is being powered by digital advertising which now accounts for 60% of total spend, half of which is attributed to search, where an impressive period of breakneck double-digit expansion shows no sign of slowing with growth of 11% predicted for 2019 alone.

Out-of-home digital formats continue to reflect this digital trend, accounting for half of all out-of-home spend in 2018 with an expected flurry of further growth still to come as automation brings gains, expanding by 3% in both 2019 and 2020.

While the sector is strong in absolute spend it is weak in depth with Google and Facebook hoovering up around three-quarters of this gross figure on a gross basis.

Television, a sector stalwart, continues to hold its own with stable advertising revenues of £4.5bn, equivalent to around 20% of all media investment – in pronounced contrast with newspapers and magazines which now account for under 10% of all media investment, down from the 50% plus level attained as recently as 2004.

Radio meanwhile is projected to grow at a steady 2% next year.

Declining optimism globally has prompted GroupM to downgrade worldwide growth expectations for 2019 to 3.6%.