UK ad exports outpace rivals to reach record £19.4bn

Exports of UK advertising services reached a new record high of £19.4bn in 2025, securing the UK’s position as the world’s second-largest advertising exporter.

So says a new report, published today at UK House during SXSW London by the Advertising Association and UK think tank Credos, which reveals 38% surplus year-on-year export growth, outpacing the UK service sector average. The US remains the UK’s largest market, with exports reaching £5.5bn in 2025.

By combining ONS export analysis and international case studies, the report demonstrates how UK advertising operates as a strategic enabler of wider macroeconomic growth, helping brands and businesses compete globally through creativity, strategy, production, technology, and data-led communications.

To maintain the sector’s momentum, the report outlines a three-year plan focused on deepening the UK’s commercial presence in priority global markets, including the US, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

The Advertising Association has set out five key recommendations to the UK Government to ensure the infrastructure matches the industry’s economic significance:

Sector recognition: Give advertising parity with screen and music in the Government’s export support infrastructure.

Engage advertising: Actively signpost advertising and adtech businesses to the government support that already exists.

Talent mobility: Extend talent mobility commitments to fit working in advertising. Strengthen the UK-US creative partnership.

Export enabler: Recognise advertising as an enabler of all other exports.

Support innovation: Make the existing innovation infrastructure accessible to advertising; close the CoStar and Innovate UK access gap.

International director for UK Advertising and the Advertising Association Aisling Conlon said: “This report shows the immense scale of what UK advertising already delivers internationally, not only as an export sector in its own right, but as a driver of growth and commercial success for businesses across the wider economy. UK advertising does not need rescue. It needs recognition as one of the UK’s great global growth industries.”

Chair of the UK Advertising Export Group Julian Douglas, who is also group CEO of VCCP, added: “Pound for pound, the UK is the most respected creative advertising market in the world. But reputation alone doesn’t win business; presence does. The agencies that grow internationally are the ones who show up consistently, build relationships and stay visible in market. The Advertising Association is building exactly that infrastructure, and this report makes the case for why the Government needs to back it.”

UK ad exports outpace rivals to reach record £19.4bn

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