I noticed from this International Business times article that UK advertising spend is rising at its fastest rate since 2010, some 8.5% year-on-year in Q2 2014. This was predictably led by digital advertising, with e-commerce related advertising the subsegment growing fastest of all on TV, radio and internet.

So to cut to the chase, which UK companies benefit? Of course, the advertising behemoth that is WPP (LON:WPP) is an obvious beneficiary, but in my view not the best one as it is one of a select few truly global advertising giants (together with Omnicom and Publicis). Equally well, we should not forget M&C Saatchi (LON:SAA), which is also an advertising agency play. 

No, my focus is on smaller, more UK-centric advertising and marketing plays, such as Communisis (LON:CMS) whom I saw at a recent Sharesoc event in London (highly recommended for anyone who likes to hear UK small-caps present and then answer questions).

Communisis is a cheap stock with high Value and Quality StockRanks, combined with decent top-line growth prospects and slowly improving profitability. 

   1. Communisis StockRanks
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I would also suggest other media-related small-cap names such as Mission Marketing (LON:TMMG) (which I have written about previously here), a collection of advertising and marketing agencies that is also very attrractive on the Value StockRank, trading at a P/E of 7.2x and a trailing EV/EBITDA ratio of only 5.4x. Just like Communisis, analysts expect decent top-line growth from Mission Marketing as well this year and next. 

   2. The Mission Marketing Group

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  Bear in mind that, according to the research of Wesley Gray at Alpha Architect, the best value measures for value stock outperformance have been EV/EBIT and EV/EBITDA over the last few decades. So on this basis, both Communisis (LON:CMS) and Mission Marketing (LON:TMMG) look good from both a micro value perspective as well as the macro outlook. 

Finally, it would be remiss of me to mention a third favourite of mine in the small-cap media sector, Creston (LON:CRE), which…

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