UK ad industry bounces back from recession

Thursday, 24 March 2011

The UK advertising market registered a 6.9% rise in expenditure in 2010, according to a new report released today by the Advertising Association. This “significant bounce-back from recession” apparently made last year the strongest year for adspend growth since the dotcom boom of 2000.

A strong final quarter of the year lifted the overall 12 month Advertising Association/Warc figures, with television and direct mail emerging as the strongest performers over the three month period - recording 12% and 12.7% rises in expenditure respectively.

Across 2010 as a whole, TV was seemingly the star of the show, with an overall increase of 15.8% – its strongest growth rate since 1986.

This picture is in sharp contrast to the previous year, when TV adspend plummeted by 10.1%.

Out-of-home advertising and the internet both turned in strong figures - up 12.5% and 10.9% year-on-year - whereas the publishing industry saw mixed results.

National newspaper ad spend increased by 6% across the year, but regional papers and magazines dropped 6.4% and 5.9% respectively.

In total the UK advertising market was worth £15.5bn in 2010.

Suzy Young, data editor at Warc, called the last 12 months “an impressive year for UK adspend.”

She continued: “This included a surprisingly strong performance from direct mail in the second half of the year. This could be attributed to advertisers relying more heavily on the more traditional and immediate forms of communication with the consumers.

“While growth will moderate in 2011, we anticipate higher rates of growth in 2012 as the economy picks up and London gears up for the Olympics.”

Warc and the AA expect growth to dip to 2.9% in 2011, before rising back to 5.5% in 2012.

Courtesy of www.how-do.co.uk

What Comes First? Width or Height?

Article from www.highresolutions.com

I had a conversation with a fellow sign-maker recently that turned into a battle of wits. It was fun. No harm, no foul. We were both trying to convince the other of whether width or height comes first in the world of 2D measurements.

Thus, the inspiration for this article.

Whether you’re into a building project and ordering windows, or designing the perfect trade-show exhibit, providing accurate measurements is mandatory.

However, the one thing that plagues the world of measurements is orientation.

Let’s take an 8 foot by 4 foot banner. Which way is it oriented? Landscape or Portrait? Tall or wide? Is that measured east to west, or north to south? There are many approaches to resolving references to orientation. But what indicators are there that will set your perspective in stone? What is the standard?

What comes first?

The Graphics’ industry standard is width by height (width x height). Meaning that when you write your measurements, you write them from your point of view, beginning with the width.

That’s important. When you give us instructions to create an 8×4 foot banner, we’ll design a banner for you that is wide, not tall.

So, who says width by height is “The Standard”? I can break it out by layout programs such as Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign. They all use the width by height order to determine orientation. But, let’s take it down to a more natural level. Which way do you read (assuming you read English literature)? Left to right, first, then down the length of the page.

FULHAM IN SWP £4m SWP SWOOP

FULHAM want to sign Manchester City star Shaun Wright-Phillips in a £4million deal.

Craven Cottage boss Mark Hughes signed the England man from Chelsea when he was Eastlands boss in 2008 and is keen to work with the winger again.

Fulham can afford the small transfer fee but SWP would need to take a drop in wages as the Londoners would not be able to offer anywhere near his current £60,000-a-week wages.

Yet the player is keen to end his second spell at the City and is desperate for more first-team football.

City are looking to offload some of their fringe players during this month's transfer window and Wright-Phillips, 29, is one of them.

Sparky is also keeping a close eye on another of his former players, Blackburn's David Dunn.

He has 18 months left on his contract and has finally put his injury woes behind him with a string of impressive performances.

That has not gone unnoticed by former Rovers boss Hughes and also Newcastle, who are considering a raid for the £2m-rated midfielder.

It is the second time Toon have shown an interest in Dunn after the late Bobby Robson tried to sign him.

Courtesy of The Sun

Payments agency lost private data on 100,000 farmers

The confidential details of every farmer in England went missing for a year, the Government has admitted. CDs and tapes containing the personal information of about 100,000 farmers including bank details, addresses and security passwords were unaccounted for since June last year.

The lapse by the Rural Payments Agency was first noticed by IBM, which was carrying out a review of the agency’s computer systems in May.

The IT consultants informed officials at the Department for The Environment Food and agency after years of incorrect payments and a scandal over ‘obscene pranks’. Workers at its office in Newcastle took part in lewd behaviour that included smearing walls with human excrement.

Auditors fear the agency could cost taxpayers more than £620 million in fines and administration costs.

It was only when whistle blowers, frustrated by the failure to do anything about the loss, contacted Farmers Weekly that ministers or the public were informed.

It is not clear whether the tapes were lost in transit to Newcastle or simply mislaid in tan office in Reading.

Courtesy of The Daily Telegraph -

By Louise Gray Environment Correspondent

CAR PRODUCTION IS ACCELERATING

Engineering Production of cars rose by 54 per cent in May while commercial vehicle production more than doubled, compared with the same month last year. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said that 104.365 cars were produced in May. Output so far this year is 62.6per cent higher than in the same period last year (Susan Thompson).

Courtesy of The Times

Daily Mail returns to profit as advertising sales recover

DAILY Mail & General Trust, publisher of The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, has returned to profit for the first time in two years after a massive cost-cutting campaign.

The company which also publishes about 100 regional newspapers, provides financial information and also runs events, including the Surf Expo to Florida, reported pretax profits of £36m in the six months to April 4 compared with a £222m loss a year earlier.

DMGT said the profitability of its UK consumer business more than doubled compared with last year because of “recovering advertising trends”.

Courtesy of The Daily Telegraph

More properties put up for sale after home information packs abolished

The number of properties coming on to the market has risen following the abolition of home information packs (Hips), according to Rightmove, a property website.

Listings soared by 35pc in the seven days after the Government said it was scrapping the controversial packs with immediate effect.

The jump in the number of properties being put up for sale following the decision to scrap Hips is in line with figures reported by the UK’s biggest estate agency, Countrywide which saw a 34pc rise in instructions in the week following the announcement on May 20.

Hips aimed to speed up the home buying process by giving people more of the information they need up front. But estate agents had campaigned against them, complaining that the typical £299 to £350 cost of compiling one of the packs was deterring people from selling.

Courtesy of The Daily Telegraph