Advertising Association: UK ad spend up 5.9% in last 12 months

Brands in the UK spent 5.9 per cent more on advertising in the first quarter of 2018 than in the same three-month period last year, new data shows.

The latest expenditure report from the Advertising Association and Warc reveals that UK ad spend rose for the 19th quarter in a row in Q1 2018, which also happened to be the strongest Q1 recorded in three years.

In fact, investment in advertising surpassed expectations by 1.3 percentage points, as companies upped their their spending in display formats (by 4.7 per cent - six per cent if direct mail is also taken into account) and search advertising (up 1.8 per cent) in particular.

Overall, search investment now accounts for nearly £3 in every £10 of advertising budget spent in the UK.

Stephen Woodford, chief executive at the Advertising Association, commented: "This investment boosts company profits and overall GDP, creates more jobs and helps our media sector to continue to invest in the creative content and technology that the public values."