Surveys point to upward trend in marketing spend

Advertising and marketing budgets are coming back amid concerns that digital marketing channels have peaked in effectiveness.

THE LATEST MARKETING SURVEYS ARE REPORTING POSITIVE indicators for business prospects and marketing spend for the rest of the year.

The influential IPA Bellwether Report in the first three months of the year has shown a rise in optimism, it reckoned that 26% of those questioned believed finances in the ad industry would improve compared to just 10% three months earlier. Now the Find Good survey has followed saying that 48% believe profitability will improve this year.

THE SURVEY QUESTIONED MARKETING EXECUTIVES in major brands across the spectrum. More than a third (37%) said budgets would rise this year. This compares to 22% in the IPA report.

Marketing spend is being lifted by the Diamond Jubilee and London 2012 Games, but improving products does not always mean growth in ad spend. Chris Williamson, author of the Bellwether Report says: “Companies’ views on their financial prospects have risen to their highest for two years, but the brighter outlook has yet to be fully reflected in plans for marketing spend.”

THE IPA RESEARCH WAS PUBLISHED BEFORE THE FIND GOOD report, suggesting that matters are on the rise. Kim Mears, managing director of Find Good says: “It’s very reassuring to see that budgets are once more on the march, suggesting that marketers see investment in marketing activity as the best way of growing sales whilst the economy remains becalmed.”

And in further good news for print, the Find Good survey reported than spend on digital advertising is most vulnerable with 12% predicting a decline. This chimes with research conducted for the Direct Mail Association which says that conversion rates are becoming as concern for email marketers. Concerns about click rates and deliverability are now less of an issue.

DELA QUIST, CHAIR OF THE DMA EMAIL MARKETING Benchmarking Hub and chief executive of Alchemy Worx says: “This suggests that marketers are coming round to what we’ve been saying for some time now – that the end result is where we need to be focusing our attention and our resources if email marketing is to continue maturing.”

A further problem that business, particularly those that handle email campaigns in house, is that internal resource is an issue, especially at busy periods around Christmas. The answer is to look for external help.