The Wow Factory Blog

Annual marketing budgets last quarter were down by the greatest margin ever recorded by The Independent Practitioners of Advertising (IPA), according to their survey just published. This cut, the fourth successive quarterly reduction in spend, points to a marked deterioration in business conditions since the summer.

Hardest hit were budgets for main media advertising and ‘all other’ (includes PR, events sponsorship and market research). All marketing categories saw downward revisions with the exception of the Internet, but even this category saw budget expenditure for the year hold steady.

Moray MacLennan, IPA President was quoted saying, “I doubt these gloomy results will come as a surprise to anyone. In light of current headlines the biggest surprise may well be that 12% of companies’ budgets were revised upwards. The industry will be watching the next set of results with great interest, hoping the downward curve levels off, despite the impending recession."
Does the national picture reflect what is going on here in Kent? Well, there is a clear decline in traditional routes to market for the local marketer, with clients increasingly choosing to spend their (reduced) budget below the line. If this continues, what will happen to traditional media such as commercial radio, press, and TV? Well the short answer is they will have to re-invent themselves and create new revenue streams and interaction with the consumer will be key to this proposition. There have already been interesting approaches to this arena with the development of on call video/TV from the likes of BT, but clearly this fractionalises media consumption even more than is already the case, further hampering the efforts of the likes of ITV to maintain its share of the advertising pound.

Research indicates that audiences are becoming ever more sophisticated in media choice and advertising message; the social networking phenomena has been well documented in these and other pages but I wonder, has even this side of the media achieved its zenith?
So what does this mean for advertisers? Well if you are spending less, you need to make sure that what you do spend works harder - so there has never been a worse time for boring, ‘safe’ advertising. Surely the purpose of a campaign is to ensure people sit up and take notice, remember your message, talk about it, and in short create what at Wow we call ‘cut through’. This means your message hits the spot with consumers who are the right profile to purchase your products and services.

In summary, yes it is tricky out there for most Kent Business but there is still great opportunity to grow your market share and profit by creating a strong vibrant marketing message which your customers or potential customers will absolutely want to taste. Don’t whatever you do be safe. Telling people what you have always told them will get you the return that you have always had. Use this ‘credit crunch’ as an opportunity to expand your horizons and reap the benefit with new, exciting and innovative marketing that works.

Simon Clubley is a director of The Wow Factory t: 01233 713852.w: www.thewowfactory.co.uk e: simon.clubley@thewowfactory.co.uk