Regional newspapers have been urged to support a new campaign aimed at encouraging advertisers.

The appeal by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising is urging business to increase their investment in ad spend in the coming year.

It comes as a series of print and digital ads promoting IPA research are set to be run by national titles, which will also be made available for local and regional titles to publish in print and online

The campaign has also been backed by regional and national press trade body the News Media Association.

In a statement, the NMA said: “Local and national newsbrands are urged to support an IPA ad campaign encouraging advertisers to increase their investment in ad spend in the coming year.

“The print and digital ads promote IPA research which shows that companies which increased their marketing budgets during tough markets created a competitive advantage that helped them report higher average profit and better market share growth when the economy recovered.

“The filler ads, which will be running in many national newsbrands next week, are also available for local and regional publications to use next week and beyond.”

The ads can be found in various formats here.