The Cultural Influence of the UK

Adam Hopkinson, May 2022?

There was some debate at Advertising Week Europe 2022 regarding the UK’s cultural influence on the rest of the world and whether or not it was waning.?

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Culture is an umbrella term that encompasses the social behaviour, institutions, and norms found in human societies and the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups. Culture often originated from or is attributed to a specific region or location.?

And a big part of that is entertainment and how the nation spends its leisure time.?

So I started thinking about where the UK was in its cultural influence on the world and further what measures could be put in place to quantify them.?

I considered a few baseline items - export volume, GDP (and PPP adjusted GDP), language distribution, and news outlet size - all of which stay relatively consistent over (short to mid) periods.?

Then, I started looking at some fun stuff - current Netflix top global programmes, top ten global singles of 2021, same for albums, number of 3* restaurants, fashion brands, 3* chefs,? biggest box office film directors and most valuable football clubs.?

This is by no means a scientific list more than a small piece of personal research into a debate whose title I found rather interesting. I now spend a lot of time regularly on trains to Bristol and Manchester, so I have some time to think and write.?

So the English language is the most spoken in the world, with a total of native and non-native speakers of 1.132 bn, 15 million more than the next most spoken, Mandarin. Hindi is the third most spoken language, with a total of 615m.?

In terms of exports, the UK is the 5th biggest exporter globally with a total of $770bn. China is first with a colossal $2.7tn export market. The UK is also the 5th biggest economy measured by GDP, but when you factor in Purchasing Power Parity, it sinks to 7th with a PPP adjusted GDP of $5.25tn.?

The BBC has the most visitors scoring 1.36bn visits a month in terms of news coverage. Also in the top 10 are The Daily Mail #4 - 374m, The Guardian #5 - 347m, and The Express #10 - 167m. The UK’s opinion on world events is being consumed.?

You would expect then that the 21st most populous country (interestingly, 9th in 1950) would have a strong influence on the world’s culture anyway, but that it appears in the above metrics higher than its relative population place, a higher influence still.?

But what about the fun stuff??

Of the current top 10 programmes on Netflix, there are three UK co-productions (they are Bridgerton, The Circle, and Anatomy of a Scandal). Of the top 10 global singles in 2021, The UK had two: Dua Lipa Levitating and Ed Sheeran Bad Habits, with a total stream of 3.45bn streams. The top 10 total was 17.2bn, and Canadian music was streamed the most with 5.46bn streams.?

The top 10 albums in 2021 were topped by Adele 30, and the UK had two further entries with Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa Future Nostalgia.?

The biggest box office director of all-time top 10 is, rather unsurprisingly, Steven Spielberg topping the list with a box office total of ￡10.6bn. But the UK represents. David Yates is 5th with a total of $6.3bn, Christopher Nolan 7th with ￡4.9bn and Ridley Scott 10th with ￡4.4bn.?

I’m getting hungry now, so let’s talk about food. Joel Robuchon tops the list of chefs with the most Michelin stars with 31. The UK has one chef in the top 10, Gordon Ramsay, at number 6. (Heston is number 11.) The UK is 5th in the list of total stars with 194 and 5th in the list of 3-star restaurants.?

The biggest cultural export we have in the world is football, where the UK can boast 6 of the top 10 biggest clubs ranked by value. Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham. Barcelona tops the list.?

The UK has no place in the top 10 biggest fashion brands in the world nor the biggest gaming studios.?

Appreciating that this is not exhaustive and is subjective as I chose the categories based on important things to me, I’d say that the UK does indeed have a strong cultural influence on the world. PASHN is here to understand the UK’s cultural profile and help you use it to connect with your consumers.?

And if you can suggest further categories to investigate, let me know.?Thanks for reading