| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Mia Blakeney |
The latest AA/WARC Expenditure Report has been published today (Thursday 25 July 2024) and sees an increase in UK advertising spend across Q1 2024, and further increases forecasted for Q2 2024 and beyond.
According to the report, UK advertising spend increased 9.3% to £9.2bn during Q1 of 2024 – setting a new high for a first quarter period. This includes +6.4% growth for advertising spend for cinema.
The new AA/WARC forecasts expect UK ad spend to rise 9.2% in Q2 2024 (April to July) this year to reach £9.7bn. This would equate to a rise of 9.3% during the first half of 2024, to a total of £18.9bn.
Expectations for both 2024 and 2025 have seen an uplift in the latest dataset. The UK advertising market is now expected to grow by 7.7% to reach £39.4bn this year, an upgrade of 1.9 percentage points (pp) since AA/WARC’s April forecast. Cinema is predicted to see increased advertising spend, with a 4.4% positive uplift year-on-year, which is also up by 1.9 percentage points (pp) since AA/WARC’s April forecast.
The H2 film slate shows an array of exciting opportunities for brands to use cinema’s attention-rich environment to maximise their commercial impact, with releases such as Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Joker: Folie à Deux, Paddington In Peru, Gladiator II and Wicked.
A further rise of 5.5% is expected in 2025, by when the UK’s advertising market is set to reach £41.6bn, an upgrade of 1.0pp from the April forecast. This includes a 3.5% uplift for cinema, an upgrade of 1.3pp from the April forecast.
The upcoming 2025 film slate already has a lot to offer brands, including Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, Minecraft, Mission: Impossible 8, MEGAN 2.0 and Fantastic Four.
“The enduring strength of legacy display media – chiefly TV, out of home, radio and cinema – was also evident in the first quarter” said James McDonald, Director of Data, Intelligence & Forecasting, WARC. “Our outlook for the coming year is brighter than our last projection in April, with a forecast 7.7% rise in total ad spend this year ahead of the average rate recorded before the pandemic.”
Read more from latest the AA/WARC Expenditure Report here.
Reach out to the DCM team to explore cinema advertising opportunities.