UK marketing budgets have grown once again, following a worrying period of stasis in Q3 2024 caused by uncertainty around Labour’s autumn budget.

According to the IPA’s latest Bellwether report for Q4 2024, 21.7% of respondents reported having increased their total marketing budgets during the fourth quarter, whilst 19.9% reported having made cuts.

Across the board, this meant there was an upward +1.9% balance in net marketing spend compared to the previous quarter, which saw a flat 0.0% net balance.

Events continues to be a top performer in the post-Covid era, dominating budgets and seeing its spending increased by 12.3%. Other sectors such as PR (+6.8%) and direct marketing (+5.8%) also saw strong growth.

Sales promotions and market research were also up this quarter, growing by 4.1% and 3.1% respectively. Conversely, main media advertising and ‘other’ saw declines of 4.3% and 4.2% respectively. In the IPA’s Bellwether, ‘main media’ includes categories such as audio, out-of-home, published brands, other online, and video.

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IPA director-general Paul Bainsfair said the report ““paints an understandably cautious picture” but pointed out that the overall budget growth was encouraging.

He did however add that the reduction in main media budgets was “disappointing”, adding: “Cuts to this category are not uncommon in tougher times given their need for greater financial contribution, which is also why we’ll often see concurrent increases by marketers to other shorter-term media. All of which reflects companies’ concerns on profitability following the Budget.”

For the financial year ahead, a strong chunk of companies are anticipating a positive upturn in fortunes, with 25.6% expecting an upward revision in budgets.

This was however tempered by a net balance of 20.1% of respondents who expect an overall deterioration in financial prospects across the industry.