‘Brexit’ puts UK digital media in the spotlight
As the UK angsts over whether or not it should leave the European Union, with the referendum set for 23rd June, the battle lines are being drawn over the benefits, or otherwise, to the digital technology industry.
The Centre for Economic and Business Research says that the UK is the EU’s second largest economy, the fifth biggest on the planet, and it still ranks as the world’s 11th largest manufacturer. But it is in the digital economy in particular where the UK is the leader in Europe.
In fact, a recent study by The Boston Consulting Group showed the UK’s Internet economy to be the biggest of all the G-20 countries as a percentage of GDP.
The spotlight fell on the digital sector recently courtesy of “The Drum,” Europe’s largest marketing website and a well-respected global media platform. The Drum ranks digital marketing agencies annually in three areas to gauge their success; client satisfaction, financial performance and recommendations from peers.
For financial performance, agencies are ranked against those of a similar staff size across turnover, turnover growth, turnover percentage growth, turnover per head, gross profit and gross profit growth. Client satisfaction and peer recommendation rankings are also clearly regarded as important ratifications by the agencies who participate in the census – https://www.greenlightdigital.com/blog/posts/greenlight-scores-a-place-in-top-10-of-the-drum-independent-agencies-census-2015/.
Given the UK’s overall digital global status and The Drum’s status as Europe’s foremost marketing agency, the awards punch well above their weight on an international scale and are much sought after by thousands of agencies across the UK and Europe each year.
The Drum’s annual awards report also picks out agencies with the best overall rankings across all those three areas of client satisfaction, financial performance and recommendations, which earns the lucky few “elite” status. Such a ranking, as achieved by the afore-mentioned Greenlight and a few other select agencies, can have enormous implications for the success of those agencies on an international scale. What happens in the UK’s booming digital economy is important as it is moving ahead of other nations.
Would “Brexit” make a difference?
Whenever the UK’s digital media industry comes under scrutiny, it has wider implications for the rest of the world, and particularly across Europe. How this burgeoning sector would be affected by a so-called “Brexit” if Britain leaves the EU, however, is debatable – although there are benefits which arise from a single digital European market.
The UK is a leading player in the digital marketing economy.
Whether this will change in the future is, again, debatable. To say the digital economy is of ever-increasing importance is, of course, to state the obvious. The Boston Consulting Group research revealed the internet to now be the UK’s second-biggest economic sector – with only the property sector left to surpass. The digital sector has now overtaken both manufacturing and retail, contributing over £180 billion (US$250 billion) to the country’s economy – up from £120 billion in 2010. In 2016, it is estimated that the digital economy will contribute 12.4 percent of GDP in the UK – whilst the G-20 average is just 5.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the UK also has the most important app economy in Europe, according to a new report from the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI). The PPI says more than 321,000 jobs in the country should be deemed as part of the ‘app economy’.
By any measure, the UK’s digital economy is a force to be reckoned with – and it’s still growing apace.
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