Business confidence, marketing company failure, RTD alcohol: 5 interesting stats to start the week

Business leader confidence grows in January

Confidence in the UK economy among business leaders grew notably in January, indicating a more optimistic outlook going into 2026.

The Institute of Directors’ Economic Confidence Index, which measures business leader optimism in prospects for the UK economy, jumped to -48 in January 2026, from -66 in December. While it remains firmly in minus figures, this represents a significant uptick.

Business leaders’ confidence in their own companies also rose notably, from -4 in the last month of 2025, to 14 in January.

The underlying measures making up this score also rose significantly, with business leaders’ revenue expectations rising from 8 in December, to 23 in January. This is the highest level since September 2024.

Hiring among organisations also may be about to increase, with headcount expectations rising to -2 from -14. Investment intentions rose to -5 in January from -21 in December.

Business leaders’ expectations of the costs their companies will incur also look better for January, with cost expectations falling (albeit marginally) from 84 in December to 81 last month.

Source: Institute of Directors

Pre-mixed spirits provide boost to the alcohol sector

The alcohol sector is one where growth following the pandemic has been limited, with beer and cider, wine and spirits all showing limited growth since 2020.

However, pre-mixed or ready-to-drink (RTD) spirits is one sub-category that is giving the industry a boost. Between 2020 and 2025, flavoured alcoholic beverages grew by 9% in value terms, and 5% in volume terms. This growth momentum is forecast to continue through 2029.

Pre-mixed spirits represent a subcategory of flavoured alcoholic beverages, and is projected to see volume and value growth of 5.2% and 7.7% respectively between 2025 and 2029. Only non-alcohol spirits will grow faster, according to research from GlobalData.

Convenience is one factor driving the success of RTD spirits, with GlobalData’s 2025 quarter four survey finding that 82% of buyers rate convenience as essential or nice to have when making product purchases.

The research also underlines the importance of innovation for brands in the sector, with almost three in five (59%) consumers saying uniqueness or novelty is either essential or nice to have when making purchases.

Source: GlobalData

Over a third of marketing companies fail within five years

Over a third of marketing companies fail within five years of coming into existence, with advertising agencies being particularly hard to sustain, according to an analysis of Companies House data.

The analysis from Avid Panda, looked at data from Companies House to find the number of new companies within the marketing industry that were incorporated between January 2021 and December 2025 and compared that to the number of marketing businesses that have gone into administration, liquidation, or are now dissolved.

It found that, over the past five years, almost two in five (39%) new marketing companies created have already shutdown. There were 87,785 companies started in this period, with 34,116 having now ceased trading.

The marketing companies captured in the data fall into four categories: advertising agencies, market research and polling companies, media representation services and PR activities.

Advertising agencies were particularly likely to fail between 2021 and 2025, with 41% of the new businesses started having already failed. By contrast, PR companies were the most successful, with a 29% failure rate.

Source: Avid Panda

UK ad spend set to exceed £50bn this year

UK ad spend is expected to rise 7.5% in 2026 to exceed £50bn for the first time, according from the latest Advertising Association/Warc expenditure report.

For FY25, AA/Warc predicts growth of 10.1% to £46.9bn, the fifth consecutive year of market expansion.

According to the figures, which represent advertising expenditure from July to September 2025, UK ad spend rose 11.4% to £12.5bn in Q3. For the Q1 to Q3 2025 period, ad spend increased 9.8% to £34.5bn.

These gains have happened despite a background of “wider economic uncertainty” including “domestic and international political uncertainty”, the report finds.

Warc director of data, intelligence and forecasting, James McDonald, claims the data demonstrates “enduring resilience” across the UK advertising industry.

Search and online display formats accounted for 83% of total ad spend in the period, rising 14.6% year-on-year, according to AA/Warc.

Spend on cinema advertising saw the greatest growth from July to September, up 23.9%, credited to film releases such as The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. From Q1 to Q3, growth in cinema was 20.5%.

Online radio notched up 19.2% year-on-year growth in Q3, up 15.6% from Q1 to Q3. This aligns with recent RAJAR data, which reported a record 56% share of commercial radio listening driven by increased digital listening through apps and smart speakers.

Source: AA/Warc

Strong correlation between driving trust and business effects

There is a strong correlation between driving trust through advertising and delivering business effects with those campaigns, suggests data from the IPA.

The analysis, which looked at campaigns in the IPA Effectiveness Databank, finds 93% of for-profit advertising campaigns that report very large increases in brand trust also record at least one very large business effect, such as sizable growth in sales, market share or profit. This compares to 66% of all for-profit campaigns in the Effectiveness Databank.

This means campaigns effective in delivering increased trust are typically 27 percentage points (41%) more effective in driving business growth.

Splitting out the specific business effects that trust-driving campaigns deliver, these campaigns are significantly more likely to deliver sales volume gains. Almost two in five (37%) for-profit campaigns that drive trust also deliver sales volume gains, compared to 26% across the IPA Effectiveness Databank.

Similarly, 35% of trust-driving campaigns also delivered profit growth, versus 24% of all campaigns in the databank. Over tenth (11%) of trust-driving campaigns also delivered a reduction in price sensitivity compared to 6% of campaigns generally.

Source: IPA