Confidence in the European Advertising Business Increases Marginally in Q2/2019

Business confidence in the European advertising and marketing sector has taken a marginal turn upwards, according to the latest European Advertising Business Climate Index issued by the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA). 

The report, based on a sample of nearly 1,500 advertising and market research companies across Europe, shows that business confidence in the ad industry has increased from +2.7 to +3.4 over the last quarter (see Graph 1). Graph 2 illustrates developments over a 5-year period. 

The results are driven by positive expectations of demand for the next three months (from +7.8 to +14.3), bouncing upwards after a continuous decline in the previous three quarters. 

The expectations of the prices also appear to be rising to a small extent from +10.1 to +10.2 between Q2 and Q3/2019. 

On the other side of the coin, employment developments and expectations seem rather negative. The evolution of employment has been sinking since Q2/2018, declining incrementally from +6.2 to -7.4 over the last year. Expectations are still on the plus side, but now at their two-year bottom of +3.1. At the same time, inadequate and/or lacking labour forces are estimated to account for 12.2% of factors limiting the business in Q3/2019, up from the previous figure of 7.1% in Q2/2019. 

The countries that have experienced the biggest increase in their overall confidence index are the Czech Republic (from +20.1 to +36.7, which is the highest level of all the participating countries in Q2/2019) and Italy (from -0.6 to +18.1).

The countries at the other end of the spectrum are Cyprus (from -21.9 to -69.8, which is the the lowest level of all the participating countries in Q2/2019) and Croatia (from +20.4 to +8.5). 

"The latest results of the Ad Index show that more work could be done to ensure the advertising industry’s access to talent. At EACA, we address this through 'Inspire! By EACA,' which is a single European hub with education and training opportunities for all stakeholders in the communications industry. It is one of our key priorities to help develop talent and boost dialogue and cooperation between businesses, students and academics," says Tamara Daltroff, EACA’s director general.