The findings of the latest Bellwether Report, published on behalf of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, on the financial state of the marketing industry has revealed renewed business confidence for 2005.

Of those companies that had already set their marketing budgets for 2005, over half reported that budgets have been set higher than actual spend in 2004. This will almost undoubtedly have a positive knock-on effect on clients’ market research expenditure.

Chris Williamson of NTC Research which conducted the survey on behalf of the IPA told Research: “Although the study does not look at market research in isolation I believe that the outlook for 2005 is encouraging.”

Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the WPP Group, which owns Research International and Millward Brown, said he is optimistic about 2005: “All the evidence seems to suggest a shift in client thinking from cost cutting to driving top line growth through increases in advertising and marketing services expenditures.”