Warc GMI shows improving conditions in October

The headline GMI, a metric which combines monthly responses from a global panel of marketers regarding trends they have observed in marketing budgets, trading conditions and staffing levels, recorded a reading of 52.3 this month.

 

 

The headline index showed declines for all regions measured, but only Europe – with an index value of 49.5 – recorded a negative outlook. Marketers in the Americas are most upbeat (58.6) and conditions in Asia Pacific are also generally positive (52.6).

 

The GMI, launched in October 2011, provides a unique monthly indicator of the state of the global marketing industry, by tracking current conditions among marketers. A GMI reading of 50 indicates no change, and a reading of over 60 indicates rapid growth.

 

There were mixed signals from the three individual components that contribute towards the headline GMI metric. The index for global trading conditions remains unchanged in October on 54.7. Within this, the Americas index value signalled rapidly improving conditions (60.0), with Asia Pacific and Europe also positive, on 54.3 and 52.5 respectively.

 

Globally, the index for marketing budgets registered a value of 48.8 in October. This represents a marginal month on month improvement, but indicates that marketing budgets are generally decreasing.

 

 

The global figure reflects declining budget expectations in Europe, where the index value was 44.1 this month. By comparison, budgets in Asia Pacific increased in October (51.0) following two months of decline. Marketers in the Americas also recorded improvement on 53.8, broadly in line with recent months.

 

The global index of staffing levels – the third component of headline GMI – has continuously been in positive territory over recent months. But October’s index value of 53.4 represents its lowest reading and a decline from September. Staff levels are rising in all regions: Americas (62.1), Asia Pacific (52.6) and Europe (52.0).