Traditional media may struggle to claw back budget share from direct and online marketing, with the latest Bellwether Report showing marketers continuing to slash spend in favour of a more measurable, ROI-focused approach.
With overall budgets revised up marginally, the big winners in the last quarter of 2011 were search (up 14.9%) and Internet (up 13.4%), with direct marketing and sales promotion both seeing modest rises (up 0.6%).
Meanwhile, according to provisional survey data, budgets for 2012 look set to rise relative to 2011 actual spend, although the planned increase is weaker than any year prior to 2009.
Mel Cruickshank, IPA Direct Marketing Group chairman, and chief executive of Lida, said: “I find it extremely positive that this quarter’s Bellwether Report has found that marketing budgets have been revised up, however marginally.
“Despite reduced confidence and pessimism towards the overall outlook for 2012, it’s great to see that companies have learnt the lessons of past downturns by keeping marketing budgets steady to protect and maintain their market share. It will be interesting to see if in the long term, traditional media will be able claw back the budget share from DM activities, as marketers become comfortable with a more measurable, ROI-focused approach.”
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