Digital industry to thrive in recession- survey
- Added:
- Nov 26, 2008
Marketing and PR are historically the first disciplines to join the redundancy pile when a recession hits. However, a new set of stats from Shape the Future suggests it could be a very different story this time round.
Respondents to the latest corporate spending survey, from Shape the Future, have identified intentions to increase spending on promotion over the next 12 months.
This is a complete turnaround on the historic marketing budgetary cuts, which have been the standard saving tactics for companies struggling to tread water during previous recessions.
In addition, two new activities marked for increased spend over the next year were cited as Networking and Website Optimisation (SEO) (by one fifth or 19.7 percent of the sample).
A quarter of UK businesses surveyed cited websites (25.1 percent) and PR (11.9 percent) as the most important marketing items over the next 12 months.
“When the dot com bubble burst ten year ago, some valuable lessons were learned. Unfortunately several of these came too late for many companies who went under. The research results from Shape the Future seem to show the far greater understanding of the online world and how it can aid survival this time around. It’s a fine balance between the two that will be the ideal formula” said Liz Barnes, Chair of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Sussex branch.
Peter Martin, managing director at Shape the Future and author of the report said: “Interestingly, the data we have collected also shows an increase in print spend alongside SEO and PR. This suggests that companies are moving towards finding that lucrative balance to meld on and offline activity to boost their bottom line. The key is knowing where your customers are and what they are likely to respond to the most.”
|
Increased business spending identified over the next 12 months on: |
% of companies surveyed |
|
Websites |
58.9 |
|
PR |
42.5 |
|
|
23.9 |
|
Direct Marketing |
18.2 |
In total 36.4 percent of companies surveyed plan to increase their overall marketing budgets in the next 12 months. Nearly half planned no change, while only nine percent planned to reduce, leaving another nine percent not sure yet.
For marketing spend overall, the statistics showed that:
· Those more likely to increase spending were business services companies.
· Property services were likely to be decreasing their spend more than average, as were retailers and wholesalers
· Businesses in the South East were more likely to be reducing their marketing spend
· And 45.7 percent planned no change or were undecided
Source: http://www.shape-the-future.com
