The latest IPA Bellwether Report revealed that the growth of U.K. marketing budgets slowed to a three-year low at the end of '15, but marketers "predict green shoots in the coming year," according to Kate Magee of CAMPAIGN LIVE.
A net balance of 0.5% of companies "registered an increase to their budgets" in the last quarter of '15, a marked drop from the 4.4% upward revision in the third quarter.
Marketers’ confidence in their industry’s financial prospects remains low at 7%, up from 6.8% in the previous survey (CAMPAIGN LIVE, 1/14). Driven by corporate interest in sponsorship as a platform to support int'l expansion -- as well as increased opportunities for brands to partner with rights-holders beyond the properties’ home markets -- global sponsorship spending is projected to grow 4.7% in '16, according to IEG’s 31st annual year-end industry review and forecast.
At that rate, worldwide spending would grow faster than any of the previous three years and would top $60.2B.
IEG Senior VP Jim Andrews said, "More marketers, in particular major brands from China and India, are taking a page from the playbook of U.S., European and Japanese companies before them that used sponsorship to build regional and global brands" (IEG).
