We’ll protect the UK advertising industry, says Fox, as concerns rise over effect of no deal
LIAM FOX, the International Trade Secretary, has said the Government is seeking to “protect and build” the UK’S reputation as an advertising powerhouse, months after a report suggested the sector could be plunged into a recession if a Brexit deal cannot be agreed.
“The work of the creative industry has profound implications for audiences, and businesses, across the UK,” Mr Fox said.
“My international economic department is an ardent supporter of the UK’S creative offering. More than 100,000 businesses took steps towards exporting as a result of DIT’S own exporting campaigns.”
Mr Fox was speaking ahead of Cannes Lions next week, the biggest event in the advertising calendar, where the DIT will be running a joint campaign with British industry titled “Creativity is GREAT”.
The industry body Advertising Association, Clear Channel UK, Channel 4, Framestore, London & Partners, M&C Saatchi and Newsworks are all involved in the campaign, to promote the UK creative industries to international buyers.
London & Partners are backing a delegation of around 20 high growth adverting firms from the capital, while the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) is taking a second delegation of 20 small and medium businesses.
Advertising is an area where the UK has up until this point been particularly strong – in the last 10 years, the region has almost tripled the value of advertising services it exports, and the most recent annual figures suggest exports are now worth £6.9bn, up 18pc year on year.
This is a faster level of growth than
‘The work of the creative industry has profound implications for audiences, and firms, across Britain’
for the wider services sector as a whole, where exports were up 7pc.
It is also the largest advertising market in Europe, and is the third largest in the world, behind only China and the US.
However, concern has been mounting within the sector over the effect a no-deal Brexit would have, with a number of major groups urging progress to be made on an EU exit deal.
Stephen Woodford, the boss of the Advertising Association, called for no deal to be taken off the table, saying it would be “hugely concerning”, while marketing body the DMA Group warned that the “UK cannot retain its position as a global leader in data, technology and marketing if we do not have an Adequacy deal on future data flows with Europe”.
In January, a report by Enders Analysis found that the sector would likely take a hit should the UK crash out of the European Union without a deal.
Spending would likely slip 3pc to £22.5bn in a no-deal outcome, the report said, in what would be the first decline since 2009.
Enders Analysis said the “threat of losing market access to the EU endangers future UK investment by US online advertising platforms and ad tech firms”.
“The UK is heavily dependent on the free flow of cross-border personal data with European Economic Area countries, but, as a third country, the UK will need to seek ‘data adequacy’ status with the EU in order to maintain this free flow.”
The firm said, should a downturn happen, more spend would likely be directed towards the larger online advertising players, such as Facebook and Google, as they would “benefit from a general advertiser tendency to become more tactical with ad spend”.