According to the latest Bellwether survey, recovery of the advertising market in UK influenced cutting budgets by marketers in the second quarter of 2010, fearing of a ‘double dip.’

IPA publishes Bellwether report annually. It is considered as a key measure of the advertising and health of the marketing industry. During the first three months of 2010, there was a dramatic increase in UK marketing budgets. Long after the recession for the first time, many UK companies raised marketing budgets than made cutbacks.

The first three months of 2010 was an increase in expenditure on digital activity such as banner advertising/display or search engine marketing. It was the only trend which sustained. Though a lower rate than in the past 3 quarters, almost all the companies in the report showed hike in internet marketing expenditure.

20% of companies said that they have cut their annual advertising budget between April and the end of the June, though, only 15% said that they increased their expenditure during this period across the sector. According to the report, there is positive sentiment among the marketing industry has dropped to its lowest for a year. Only a quarter of the respondents were negative about their company’s financial prospects.

Even though TV, press and radio suffered very low downward budgetary revisions in the second quarter, internet marketing remained strong. This might not be long lasting, as their may be a change in the third quarter. There will no longer events like world cup to boost the ad expenditure.

As per the report, the companies feel less need to offer price discounts because of the third fastest downgrade on the sales promotion sector in the Bellwether survey’s history.