Nielson report analyses impact of recession

A report by Nielson, entitled 'Reading the Recession', will reveal how the recession has affected brands, consumer behaviour and job vacancies in the UK, as well as identifying signs of a recovery.

The report analyses the impact of the recession in the UK using a number of datasets including key economic indicators, consumer research, recruitment data, website measurement and advertising spend.

The report also identifies sectors exhibiting early evidence of recovery.

The decline in total advertising spend is consistently slowing down, according to the report.

September 2009 was down 10 per cent year-on-year compared with May 2009, which was 16 per cent year-on-year.

In addition, many brands are said to be showing year-on-year quarterly growth for the first time in 12 months.

The first signs of 'green shoots' are particularly notable within retail, according to Nielson's report, as the likes of DFS, SCS and BandQ encourage consumers to make home improvements until moving house becomes a more viable option again.

In each case, the three retailers have followed four continuous quarters of negative growth (quarter two 2008 to quarter one 2009) with two quarters of positive growth (quarter two 2009 and quarter three 2009).

Among the findings for the first 12 months of the UK recession - July 2008 to June 2009 - the country's leading supermarkets led the charge for those looking to spend their way through, as large budgets were put behind 'value' promotions, instigating a public price war.

Asda's ad spend increased by 40 per cent during this period.

The government's Central Office of Information (COI) also increased its ad spend for the period (+33 per cent), as it looked to back awareness campaigns about the dangers of smoking and drinking, the importance of the HPV vaccine for young girls and measures to help protect against the spread of swine flu.

For those at the opposite end, Procter and Gamble headed the table of biggest fallers, cutting its media budget by GBP28.6m (15 per cent) for the period, closely followed by Toyota (57 per cent) and Tiscali, with a 92 per cent reduction.

The introduction of the scrappage scheme in May 2009 provided a lifeline for the motor industry, which was already heavily affected by the recession.

All but two manufacturers (Audi and Seat) chose to reduce media budgets by anything from six per cent (Hyundai) to 66 per cent (Lexus).

Using Nielsen's monitor of job vacancies - combining both online and print - total job vacancies across all markets halved from one million to approximately 500,000 between January 2007 and September 2009.

The number of jobs in IT, secretarial, construction and sales has each fallen by more than 50 per cent between July 2008 and June 2009.

Positions within education, social services and hospitals/medical have been the least affected, with the latter actually showing a year-on-year growth of around two per cent.

Nielsen's consumer confidence survey revealed that during quarter three 2009, UK attitudes and spending habits were beginning to change.

Around two-thirds of consumers planned to spend less on clothes, compared with 71 per cent from the previous survey conducted in the first half of 2009.

Meanwhile, those looking to save on gas and electricity bills fell from to 68 per cent to 59 per cent in quarter three 2009.

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