According to a new ANA study, the current recession is hitting marketing much harder than was anticipated 6 months prior (when the study was first conducted in August of 2008). Here are the low lights:
- 93% of companies are identifying cost savings and reductions (compared to 87% 6 mo. ago)
- 37% of respondents are looking to cut budgets by more than 20% (compared to 21% 6 mo. ago)
Some of the top areas where marketers plan to reduce costs or expenditures in marketing and advertising efforts are:
- Dept T&E restrictions (87% vs 63% in the last survey)
- Reducing advertising campaign media budgets (77% vs 69% previously)
- Reducing advertising campaign production budgets (72% vs 63% 6 mo. ago)
- Challenging agencies to reduce internal expenses and/or identify cost reductions AKA layoffs (68% vs 63%)
- Eliminating or delaying new projects (58% vs 61%)
The findings are good for Cisco Telepresence, ooVoo and consumer generated content, but pretty much horrible for everyone else...with agencies at the top of the list, as well as talent, the airlines, Cannes and Cape Town. Experimentation is also at risk.
6 months ago, when advertisers were asked what they thought would happen to their budgets, 53% of marketers felt their budgets would be reduced. In fact, 71% experienced cuts. Implications? Marketers were a combination of delusional, optimistic, guarded and/or taken by surprise.
If there's a silver lining, perhaps it's that their answers in this round would be tempered by a counter measure of conservatism/prudence to even out the bravado from 6 months ago.
Perhaps not (49% feel their budgets will be cut 6 months from now vs 43% who preduct no movement and only 8% predicting increases)
Ugly. Ugly. Ugly.
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