As The Year Draws to a Close, Marketers’ Budget Optimism Hits A New High Point

December 19, 2013

This article is included in these additional categories:

Europe & Middle East | Global & Regional | Marketing Budgets | Staffing

Warc-Global-Mktg-Budgets-Dec-2013Global marketers are as optimistic regarding their budgets as they’ve been in at least a couple of years, finds Warc in its latest Global Marketing Index (GMI). This month, the budget component of the index recorded a value of 57.3, its highest value since the index’s inception in October 2011. By comparison, this time last year, the budget component of the index stood at 47.2, while the year before that, it was at just 45. (A score above 50 indicates a generally improving environment, while a score below 50 indicates a generally declining environment.)

While marketers in the Americas have generally had the highest levels of budget optimism, this month European marketers appear to be most ready to spend more, with their index score of 58.7 their highest reading on record. Marketing budgets are also expected to increase in both the Asia-Pacific region (55.2) and the Americas (56.4), although the latter retreated slightly after a big jump last month.

Other Findings:

  • The global index for staffing levels remained positive at 55.8, though it dipped slightly from 56.5 in November. Employment levels appear to be growing most rapidly in the Americas (57.8).
  • The index for trading conditions rose by another 1.8 points to 62.7, indicating rapid expansion. Europe again led the way, with its highest level (63) on record, with the Americas (up 4.2 points to 62.3) and Asia-Pacific (flat at 61.7) both also rapidly expanding.
  • The headline global marketing index (GMI), comprised of the budget, staffing, and trading components, stood at 58.6, up 0.8 points from November and reaching its highest point on record. Europe boasted its highest reading (up 0.1 points to 59.1), followed by the Americas (up 1.2 points to 58.8) and Asia-Pacific (down 0.6 points to 57.2).

About the Data: Warc’s global panel (1,225 members) consists of experienced executives working for brand owners, media owners, creative and media agencies and other organisations serving the marketing industry. The panel has been carefully selected to reflect trends in the three main global regions: Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe.

Data collection period: 2-13 December 2013. The Global Marketing Index results are calculated by taking the percentage of respondents that report that the activity has risen (“Increasing”) and adding it to one-half of the percentage that report the activity has not changed (“Unchanged”). Using half of the “Unchanged” percentage effectively measures the bias toward a positive (above 50 points) or negative (below 50 points) index. As an example of calculating a diffusion index, if the response is 40% “Increasing,” 40% “Unchanged,” and 20% “Reducing,” the Diffusion Index would be 60 points (40% + [0.50 x 40%]). A value of 50 indicates “no change” from the previous month.

The more distant the index is from the amount that would indicate “no change” (50 points), the greater the rate of change indicated. Therefore, an index value of 58 indicates a faster rate of increase than an index value of 53, and an index value of 40 indicates a faster rate of decrease than an index value of 45. A value of 100 indicates all respondents are reporting increased activity while 0 indicates that all respondents report decreased activity.

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