Budget conditions continue to improve this month, finds Warc in its latest Global Marketing Index. The budget component of the index improved to a reading of 51.7 this month, sustaining a rebound begun last month. (A score above 50 indicates a generally improving environment, while a score below 50 indicates a generally declining environment.) The budget index rose in each of the 3 regions tracked, with confidence highest in the Americas (55.5). There are even signs of hope in Europe, where budget sentiment has been negative for some time now. The budget index score in Europe was 48.8, still representing a generally declining environment, but up 2.6 points from January.
Marketers from the Asia-Pacific region crossed over into positive territory (50.3) on the back of a 2.2 point rise from January.
Other Findings:
- The global index for staffing levels continued to rise, up from a score of 56.7 last month to 57.6 this month, approaching the “rapidly expanding” territory represented by a score of 60. The Americas again had the highest reading, of 62.1, while marketers in the Asia-Pacific (58.5) and Europe (53.2) also reported positive sentiment.
- The index for trading conditions is now at 59.4, up from 57.9. The Americas again registered the highest reading, at 60.9, followed by the Asia-Pacific (59.7) and Europe (57.4).
- The headline global marketing index (GMI), comprised of the budget, staffing, and trading conditions components, improved to 56.2, from 55 in January. February marks the third consecutive month of improvement.
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: 4-15 February 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.
