Global ad spend behind news to drop by a third versus 2019
Global advertising spend behind news brands is set to decrease to $32.3bn (£24.2bn) this year, down 33.1% from 2019 levels.
While hard-hitting headlines, from pandemics to geopolitical conflict, engage audiences, advertisers may be disengaging with this content due to reputational risk and concerns. Indeed, in the UK specifically, figures from Nielsen show just 3.7% of TV advertising spend was allocated to news programming last year.
Globally, magazine brands are suffering even more acutely than news media as a whole, with spend forecast at $3.7bn (£2.8bn) in 2025, representing a 38.6% slump since 2019.
As well as concerns about the context in which advertising may appear, the shift away from news brands as a platform to advertising may also be due to changing investment patterns for advertisers. Globally, just over half (51%) of ad spend goes to professionally-produced content, down from 72% in 2019.
There is also a widening shift towards online news consumption. This year, online news consumption is forecast to command nearly half an hour more attention than offline in the UK.
Source: Warc
Rate of inflation falls in March
The headline rate of inflation in the UK, as charted by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), fell to 2.6% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 2.8% in the year to February. This means that while prices are still rising, inflation slowed last month.
The recreation and culture sector made the largest downward contribution, with motor fuels (like petrol and diesel) also a downward contributor.
Clothing was the largest upward contributor to the rate of inflation, partially offsetting the downward contributors.
Taking owner occupiers’ housing costs into account (known as CPIH), inflation also fell, from 3.7% in the 12 months to February, to 3.4% in the 12 months to March. Housing and household services had another large downward effect on annual inflation last month.
Source: Office for National Statistics
More than one in five marketers have bad interview experiences
More than one in five (21%) job candidates in the marketing industry have reported negative interview experiences, according to data from Reboot Online.
The data comes from an analysis of the 100 best employers’ Glassdoor profiles and more than 300,000 reviews to assess negative versus positive experiences. It finds that candidates in the marketing sector are the fourth most likely to have negative experiences around job interviews.
This data will perhaps be unsurprising to many marketers who have recently gone through recruitment processes, with research from Marketing Week’s exclusive 2025 Career & Salary Survey finding that a quarter (24.9%) of marketers say their recent hiring process was either adequate, bad or very bad.
One of the most concerning findings was the prevalence of “ghosting”, with more than two-fifths (42%) of marketers having been ignored after interviewing. While 27.7% cite processes taking more than three months before receiving an answer, and 23.9% were offered a salary lower than what was discussed or advertised.
Source: Reboot Online
Marketing budgets fall for the first time in four years
In the first quarter of 2025, UK companies revised their total marketing budgets down amid heightened geopolitical tensions, marking the first overall decline in four years.
According to the Q1 IPA Bellwether report, a net balance of 4.8% of firms cut their marketing budgets. Just under a quarter (24.2%) of businesses reduced their marketing budgets, compared to 19.4% who revised them upwards.
This is a shift from the previous quarter, which recorded growth with a net balance of 1.9% of businesses revising budgets upwards.
Sales promotions budgets were revised upwards with a net balance of 8%, up from 4.1%, indicating the strongest increase in almost two years and signalling marketers are choosing to rely on short-term tactics in times of uncertainty.
Despite the decline, there is a more positive outlook for the rest of the 2025/26 financial year, with a net balance of 18.4% of marketers expecting an increase in their total marketing budgets. The biggest increases are expected in events and direct marketing.
Source: IPA Bellwether
Global online order volumes up by nearly a fifth in the first quarter
Globally, online order volumes rose 19% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, with key gifting occasions like Valentine’s and Mother’s Day providing boosts.
Indeed, gifting online order volumes rose by almost two-fifths (39%) in Q1 versus 2024 levels. Homeware and beauty products were two other categories that saw notable increases in online order volumes, rising by 34% and 17%, respectively.
There were notable rises in big ecommerce destinations, including Germany (up 45%), Poland (24%) and Ireland (18%). The volume of shipments with the UK as final destination climbed 5% year-on-year.
The research also finds shoppers are willing to pay for speed and security of online delivery. Express ‘sign-on delivery’ services saw the highest growth in last-mile delivery options in the first quarter of this year, increasing 35% year-over-year, which may be indicative of growing concerns around package fraud and parcel theft.
Meanwhile, next-day delivery volumes increased 33% in the quarter compared to 2024.
Source: Scurri
