The Q4 2013 report, published today (16 January), revealed event marketing spend rose by 1.8%, which compares to a 1.1% decline seen in Q3, a 0.9% drop in Q2 and 0.6% fall in Q1.
Paul Simonet, creative strategy director at Imagination, said: "The recovery of the experience sector represents recognition amongst clients that real personal experiences and interactions are crucial to the ongoing health of brands. Advertising is important and so is engagement.
"The next challenge is for experiences to build and deliver more content into consumers’ ongoing brand engagements."
Overall marketing budgets for the quarter were up 11% - the second-highest seen in the survey’s history.
Sectors which saw positive growth included the internet, which recorded the sharpest improvement in budgets with a net balance of +9.2%, sales promotion (+1.9%) and direct marketing (+1.2%).
Budgets for main media advertising remained flat on the previous quarter, and budgets decreased for PR (-2.8%), market research (-2.5%) and other paid for marketing activity (-2.3%).
Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit and author of the Bellwether Report, said: "The survey indicates that marketing budgets are set to rise in 2014 to the greatest extent since 2008 as the UK’s economy recovery becomes more entrenched. It showed increasing numbers of companies setting their budgets higher than 2013 on the back of very buoyant optimism about their financial prospects.
"The upbeat picture for 2014 comes on the back of another strong increase in marketing and advertising spend late last year, adding to signs that the economy ended 2013 on a firm footing."
He added companies are feeling more confident about investing in growing their businesses, advertising to build brands, supporting new product launches and taking the plunge in being more aggressive about boosting revenues.
"This increase in risk appetite should add to the sustainability of the economic recovery and represents a great start to the year," Williamson said.
The IPA Bellwether report is compiled by Markit Economics on behalf of the IPA. It reviews the marketing expenditure of around 300 UK marketing professionals and has been conducted on a quarterly basis since 2000.
Comment below to let us know what you think.
For more in-depth and print-only features, showcases and interviews with world-leading brands, don't miss the next issue of Event magazine .