Britain's Advertising Spending To Reach $33B By 2015 As Recession Eases

Ad spend in the U.K. will reach £20B ($33B) a year by '15, as brands "continue to ramp up promotions on digital formats and traditional media companies show signs of recovering from the combined impact of recession" and the rise of the Internet, according to Juliette Garside of the London GUARDIAN. Data published by the Advertising Association and the World Advertising Research Centre revealed that the World Cup in Brazil this summer "will help television," which took £4.6B last year, report a 6.6% rise this year. Advertising Association CEO Tim Lefroy said, "The forecast explosion in mobile advertising and digital formats points to U.K. advertising at the center of a global revolution in consumer information, service and choice." The flow of money into mobile advertising, and other more recent formats such as on-demand TV and newspaper websites "pushed UK ad spend up" nearly 4% to £17.9B last year. The recovery "is set to continue" with a 5.5% increase this year and a 6.5% rise in '15 (GUARDIAN, 4/27).