Government advertising climbs the league table of big spenders

Which businesses spend the most on advertising in the UK? The latest edition of Marketing Week provides the answers. The magazine has produced its latest annual listing of advertising spend, and there is one surprising “business” listed at Number 2.

The surprise is? her Majesty’s Government.

In total, government departments spent £150million on advertising in 2007 with only one firm in the UK (Procter & Gamble) spending more. You can see an example above of the kind of Government TV advertising currently - a hard-hitting commercial about the dangers of driving and using a mobile phone.

Procter & Gamble have long being one of Britain’s biggest advertisers, using the promotional budget to support a broad portfolio of brands such as Head & Shoulders, Fairy Liquid and Ariel.

The Government swapped places in the annual list with third place Unilever, the multinational owner of brands such as Pot Noodle, PG Tips and Persil.

Along with other big-name companies, Unilever cut their annual advertising budgets last year in the wake of lower consumer spending and fears of a recession.

Other brands to increase ad spending in 2007 include many who have been promoting new services and launches.

Virgin Media spent £50million, a 500 per cent increase, after launching cable TV and broadband services.

In response, rivals BSkyB spent £115million, up by 58 per cent, to become the UK’s fourth biggest advertiser.

Marketing Week said: “Gloomy predictions of economic downturn and slowing consumer spend mean marketers are steeling themselves for challenging times ahead.

“In periods of recession they have two choices - keep marketing spend stable or even increase it to ensure their brand stays front of mind, or cut back, batten down the hatches and wait for the recession to pass.

“Last year’s advertising spend figures suggest some brands have already started following the latter strategy.”

Government spending often depends on new laws or changes to existing laws which need to be communicated to those most affected, such as those to benefits, tax and health and safety. Every Government department have a budget to spend on marketing and communications and can be to promote anything from the smoking ban in pubs to job recruitment. The ads must not be party political and, because of this, all activity stops around the time of a general election.

TOP 10 ADVERTISERS (amount spent in 2007 + % change on 2006)

1 Procter & Gamble £202.6m - 12.6 per cent

2 COI Communications £149.5m - 8.6 per cent

3 Unilever - £142.2m 15.8 per cent

4 BSkyB - £114.9m 57.9 per cent

5 Reckitt Benckiser £89.7m - 7.8 per cent

6 DFS - £89.3m - 9.5 per cent

7 Nestle - £79.0m - 16.7 per cent

8 Orange - £73.2m - 2.2 per cent

9 Kellogg - £72.03m - 12.9 per cent

10 Tesco - £71.0 m - 5.3 per cent