SCOTTISH firms are responding to signs of improving economic growth by upping their marketing budgets, a report has claimed.
The latest Bellwether Report from industry body the IPA, out today, reveals that marketing budgets have been revised upwards for the fifth consecutive quarter. It found the growth in the final quarter of 2014 reached the second-highest level since the study began in 2000.
The report revealed a positive net balance of 11% of companies in Scotland registered an increase in budgets during the quarter. This marked a decline on the net balance of 12.3% reported in the third quarter of 2013 - a series record.
Internet spending budgets saw the sharpest rise, with a net balance of 9.2% firms upwardly revising their outlays.
The net balance is calculated by taking the percentage of firms reporting a downward revision in their budgets from those confirming an upward revision.
The report also found a net balance of 47% of companies reported greater optimism about their financial prospects.
This was again slightly down on the third quarter of 2013, when a 49.2% of firms reported feeling more optimistic about their finances, also a series record.
The survey, undertaken by Markit Economics on behalf of the IPA, also signalled that the optimism will continue in 2014, with provisional data indicating that a net balance of 25.8% are expecting to see growth. This would be the most positive reading since 2008, the IPA reports.
The Bellwether Report predicts there will be a 3.3% increase in advertising spend in 2014, based on the Office for Budget Responsibilty's 2.4% prediction of economic growth. It expects that level to be maintained in 2015 before rising to 4% in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article