The economic contribution of advertising in Europe

The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), with the support of a wide range of industry stakeholders [1] commissioned Deloitte to quantify the economic impact of advertising, both across Europe and in a selection of other developed markets.

This report has one over-riding objective: to demonstrate what the contribution of advertising to the European and national economies is, as well as assessing its tangible benefits to EU citizens.

This was no easy task, as there are a large number of factors which can influence GDP. However, Deloitte created an econometric model to isolate the benefits of advertising to the European economy, and to individual EU markets or countries such as Japan and Canada.

The model was based on 17 years of Advertising Association/WARC [2] data (1998 – 2014) from 35 developed markets, and found that advertising spend in the EU has a seven-fold impact on the wider economy.

[1] Advertising Association UK (AA), Association des Agences-Conseils en Communication (AACC), Association of European Radios (AER), European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA), European Broadcasting Union (EBU), European association of television and radio sales houses (EGTA), Internet Advertising Bureau EU (IAB EU), Mainostajat Finland, Organisation Werbungtreibende im Markenverband (OWM), Union des Annonceurs (UDA), Union des Entreprises de Conseil et Achat Media (UDECAM).

[2] AA/Warc Expenditure Report

A research by Deloitte