(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...While the debate continues as to whether or not digital marketing is now fully mainstream, I’m starting to envision as to how this whole question will finally be solved. And it may not be pretty.
My guess is that the recent slowdown in the economy, along with the aftereffects of this financial crisis that we are currently having, will create another recession. And marketing, as usual, will take a hit. It may be a bit masked by the Olympics, the elections, and the holiday season, but my guess is that we’ll see struggles in the early part of 2009. Maybe even longer.
What usually happens? Budgets get slashed. Marketing budgets that is. Often, one of the first to go. That’s often a gut reaction that’s a mistake, but that is all too often the way the business community works.
Now over the past few years, interactive has been growing at a faster rate than other types of advertising. While that’s good news, that also shouldn’t be surprising. First, it’s a smaller percentage of the whole pie. Second, we all know that digital is growing as a whole. We can’t fully use the concept of percentage of growth as a sure sign that interactive is mainstream. It helps, but it won’t be enough.
But the point is that, at least with major brands, television still reigns supreme. Often rightfully so. But television is often mass marketing. And very expensive as a result. It may have the biggest impact, it isn’t very efficient. And that lack of efficiency could be broadcast TV’s greatest threat in a recession…because, combined with its cost, it because a prime target for the budget cutters.
Digital marketing, including social media, could get cut too. But it won’t be as harsh (if that happens). The result may be, in many industries, digital budgets get cut ever so slightly, but increase substantially as a percentage of the budget. The increase in percentage may cause a sea change in the mentalities of CMOs, CEOs, CFOs, and, hopefully, ad agencies and PR firms. They’ll all have to adjust to reality. To the market. To the way their customer bases now use media.
So, it may take a recession for interactive and social media to get their due.
Filed under: Ad Budgets, Ad Buys, Ad Sales, Advertising, Marketing, Marketing Conversation, Marketing Industry, Traditional Marketing, pr
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Good question. My feeling is that social media will be at less risk when it can deliver a clearer ROI. Online media like PPC thrived through the last downturn because CMOs had the firm results based metrics to go toe-to-toe with the CFO.