European Advertising Business Climate Index

European ad industry enters the last quarter of 2016 with a business confidence boost

Brussels, 07 November 2016 – Business confidence levels in the European advertising and marketing industry recorded a sharp growth from +7 in July 2016 to +16 in October 2016, according to the European Advertising Business Climate Index released today by the European Association of Communications Agencies. 125

The boost is tempered by the UK’s recovery from a post-Brexit shock (soaring from -31 to +4.1), a confidence increase in Spain and Germany, and a decline in Denmark, Cyprus and Slovakia. Following the latest positive economic developments in the country, Spain marks the highest advertising business confidence in Europe (+38). The Italian ad sector experienced a slight decrease in confidence, falling from +35 to +30, but is still among the 22highest in Europe, together with the ad industries of Sweden and Germany (+27). Surprisingly, Greece marks a significant jump from -2 to +21, making it to the positive side of the spectrum for the first time in 2 years. The Croatian ad industry also experienced a remarkable confidence boost rising  from +7 to +31.

Conversly, Slovakia has the lowest business confidence in Europe (-17), and is, together with Cyprus (-9), France (-5) and Estonia (-2), on the negative side of the scale.

Both the demand and expectations for advertising services across Europe increased. The demand rose from +11 in Q2/2016 to +20 in Q3/2016, and expectations increased even more significantly, from +6 to +18 for the last quarter of 2016. 33

Just as in the previous quarter, advertising and marketing companies from Northern Europe continue to demonstrate the highest expectation of demand for their services (+29). However, the ad sector in Western Europe shows greater expectations for Q4/2016 (+17) than in Q3/2016 (+5). For both, Central/Eastern and Mediterranean European regions, demand expectations remain positive (+10).

The situation for employment trends is slightly different, since the actual evolution of employment in the EU ad sector decreased from +11 in Q2/2016 to +1 in Q3/2016, marking the lowest score in this category since the beginning of 2015. On a positive note, employment expectations rose to +18 for the last quarter of 2016 from +3 in the Q3/2016.

When asked how they expect their companies’ employment to change in the next three months, companies in all European regions remained optimistic. Hence, expectations in Western Europe marked a notable increase from +2 to +20, in Northern Europe from +23 to +27, whereas Mediterranean and Central/Eastern European regions report expectation growth from +7 to +12 and +10 to +12, respectively.

Please find the European Advertising Business Climate Index report here. You can download the press release here.

EACA will publish the next edition of the European Advertising Business Climate Index in February 2017.

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For further information, please contact:

Stevan Randjelovic
European Affairs Manager
Tel: + 32 2 740 0713
E- mail: stevan.randjelovic@eaca.eu 

About the Advertising Business Confidence Index

The Advertising Business Confidence Index builds on responses provided by advertising and market research companies across Europe for the Business and Consumer Survey of the European Commission (DG ECOFIN). Every month, companies fill in a standardised questionnaire answering different sets of questions with a simple scale of responses: increase” (+), “remain unchanged” (=), “decrease” (-). The numbers, expressed in the graphs and the press release, are balances. The balances are obtained after a percentage of negative answers is subtracted from a percentage of positive answers.

Regions featured in the index are Western Europe (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands and United Kingdom), Central/Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia), Mediterranean Europe (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain and Portugal), and Northern Europe (Denmark and Sweden). Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg and Hungary do not provide data.

About EACA

The European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) represents more than 2 500 communications agencies and agency associations from 30 European countries that directly employ more than 120 000 people. EACA members include advertising, media, digital, branding and PR agencies. They create and place adverts and develop brand-building campaigns. EACA promotes honest, effective advertising, high professional standards and awareness of the contribution of advertising in a free market economy and encourages close co-operation between agencies, advertisers and media in European advertising bodies. EACA works closely with EU institutions to ensure freedom to advertise responsibly and creatively. For more information, please go to www.eaca.eu.

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