• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, August 23, 2013

New research from the World Advertising Research Center shows that the confidence level of global marketers rose in August. Now if only their budgets would follow.

The group’s Global Marketing Index rose more than a point this month to 55.6 from 54.3 in July. Values above 50 indicate a positive trend. The GMI looks at marketer confidence in three areas including staffing levels, conditions in the ad-buying marketplace and the extent to which budgets appear to be growing (or not).

According to WARC, most of the gain came from measures related to staffing levels and buying conditions and less so from confidence that budgets were on the rise.

Marketers reported being most optimistic about staffing levels, with the GMI in that area alone rising more than 3 points to 58.2 -- its highest reading in 16 months, per the WARC research. The news was particularly good for Europe, where the ad economy has been in turmoil the past couple of years and where marketers were most optimistic about staffing, with a 6-point gain in the Index to 59.3. Confidence in the Americas was also up, nearly 3 points to 57.8.

The GMI for trading conditions rose slightly, up 0.6 points to 57.1. Conditions in the Americas improved the most, where the GMI rose nearly 3 points to 61.2. Both Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions had positive readings of around 55.

The Index as it related to budgets was flat at 51.5. In APAC, budget conditions were negative, dropping nearly 2 points to 48. For the Americas, the GMI on budgets was up a couple tenths of a point to 55.8. Europe was up about the same amount, putting the region at the neutral reading of 50 on the GMI.

Suzy Young, WARC’s data and journals director, observed that the latest readings marked the first time that the outlook for budgets in Europe were more positive than the those for APAC since the GMI began.