The Wow Factory Blog

The latest Bellwether survey published this week (13th July 2009) has found that for the second quarter in a row the rate of decline in marketing spend has eased, linked to an improvement in business confidence; with companies surveyed reporting that their financial prospects have improved for the first time since the first quarter of last year. Although the rate of decline remained severe for Q2, raising the risk of marketing spend falling in 2009 even more than in 2008, one-in-three companies reported that their financial prospects had improved compared to one-in-four reporting a deterioration.

Rory Sutherland, IPA President said "To anyone optimistically inclined, the April Bellwether seemed to signal the bottom of the market, and the new report suggests that the worst is over. Budget cutting for all marketing communications categories seems to be slowing and, while the economy is still tough, the balance of executives reporting improved prospects moved into positive territory for the first time since Q1 2008."

Spend was reduced for all categories of marketing in Q2, but at a slower rate of decline. Budgets for main media advertising and ‘all other’ (includes PR, event sponsorship and market research) were again hardest hit amongst those companies surveyed.

Jim Marshall, Chairman, Starcom stated: "The media world is still expecting and braced for a very tough six months but the indication that business and financial confidence is at last returning suggests there is certainly an argument for optimism, and that the prospects for 2010 look more positive."

Matt Simpson, Head of OMD Group Digital and Chairman of IPA Digital Media Group also commented stating: “The 'internet' and 'internet search' continue to gain a larger share of advertisers budget, despite overall budget levels decreasing. This is likely to be a reflection of increased confidence in the tracking and accountability of the channel.”
The Kent media economy continues to reflect this trend with digital marketing growing ever more relevant, this doesn’t mean that traditional routes are redundant though- the marketing mix is still as important as ever it was. Having a web presence on its own is no panacea, funnily enough people do still go to the shops, they do still have 1-2-1 relationships with suppliers both B2b and B2C and a well planned sales pitch still works!

Undoubtedly the world wide web has moved marketing communications forward for the better, but ignoring other routes to market is frankly daft. Through the line communications incorporating digital, text, advertising, data all tied in to a creative message enables the 1-2-1 relationship to be fostered and developed and are absolutely vital to long term marketing success.

Take the example of Britelite Windows the Maidstone based home improvement company, with an annual seven figure marketing spend this client has grown its revenue during the last 18 months by some 12% as a result of maintaining the budget, but by employing ever more creative routes to market, essentially Simon Bourn the marketing director at Britelite includes press, direct marketing, telesales, a well trained sales force, outdoor, exhibitions, point of sale in addition to a thought through search engine optimisation and pay per click campaign for his website. Simon says “we continue to use traditional routes to market in essence to drive traffic to our price engine within the web site. This has led to significant leads which we work hard to convert into actual sales”.

Simon Clubley is director of The Wow Factory the Kent based through the line full service agency, whose clients include Premier Foods, IPC trading systems and more than forty Kent based clients.
http://www.thewowfactory.co.uk 01233 713852