UK Advertising to Hit Record £20bn Next Year on Mobile Boom

Advertising spend in the UK is soaring and it is expected to reach a record breaking £20bn in 2015, bouyed by a surge in mobile advertising on smartphones and tablets.

Figures from Advertising Association in partnership with Warc, shows that advertising spend in the UK grew by 3.9% in 2013 to reach £17.9bn (€21.7bn, $30.2bn), and should increase by 5.5% this year in lock-step with incipient economic recovery.

Industry forecasters expect a 6.5% next year to reach a record breaking £20bn.

The impressive boom is largely driven by the increased spend on mobile advertising to smartphones and tablets, which grew by 95.2% last year to over a billion pounds.

Tim Lefroy, chief executive of the Advertising Association, said: "The forecast explosion in mobile advertising and digital formats points to UK advertising at the centre of a global revolution."

Mobile advertising is expected to remain the fastest grower through to 2015, but the rate in which it expands is expected to slow down to 45.5% over the next couple of years.

Total digital spend, including mobile, is expected to grow by over 10% to reach £7.1bn this year.

Television advertising is also set to increase by 6.6% this year. Experts are predicting that the surge in TV advertising spend will be helped along this year by worldwide events such as the World Cup this summer and online "on-demand".

Growth in online advertsing correlates with the news that Facebook reported a 72% increase in its first quarter revenues to $2.5bn, as key advertising revenues increased by 82% to $2.27bn.