Promo - December 2008 - (Page 25)

Recession When it comes to the state of online marketing for 2009, there’s a saying going around: “Flat is the new up.” In other words, marketers and agencies are fast coming to the conclusion that the down economy will put such pressure on sales and on marketing budgets that pretty much the best they can hope for in the short term is not to suffer too big a dip in either. And it’s all but official that the U.S. economy is indeed in a recession. A report on Nov. 17 from the National Association for Business Economics found that 48 of 50 economic forecasters surveyed agreed that we have experienced two or more consecutive quarters of shrinking gross domestic product. Those analysts pegged U.S. economic growth at 0.2% for this year and said they expect to see only 0.7% growth in 2009. In such a climate, no one doubts that overall marketing budgets—including advertising (online and offline) and promotion—will contract. During its in 2009 despite the economic crunch. Another 8% said their budgets would stand pat for the year. LAST IN, FIRST OUT? Some marketers and industry observers are betting that cuts will be made on a sort of corporate LIFO calculation: Last medium into the marketing mix will be first out. This would suggest that departments will see sharp cutbacks or even elimination of spending in marketing areas that have been considered experiments or learning exercises. “2009 is not the year for testing,” MediaVest USA President of Investment and Activation Donna Speciale told an audience at ad:tech New York in October. “Brands want to stick with areas that are tried and true.” On the other hand, the consumer behaviors that have been building over the last few years won’t simply dry up and blow away because household budgets are in a squeeze. People are The props the ANA respondents gave to social networks make sense, according to Dave Friedman, president of the central region for digital agency Razorfish. “The technology around social media is new, but the concept of getting friends to persuade friends to buy your product is a long-standing marketing tactic,” he says. “Socialmedia marketing is now becoming not just a credible but a critical part of a marketing campaign.” In the advergaming sector, brands marketing in a tough economic climate will still want to engage with their fans through a branded game, predicts Kenny Rosenblatt, CEO of Arkadium, which both white-labels casual games for marketers and develops brand-specific play titles. “JUST BECAUSE WE’RE IN A RECESSION PEOPLE AREN’T GOING TO STOP GOING ONLINE AND PLAYING GAMES. IT’S A STRESS RELIEVER.” —ARKADIUM CEO KENNY ROSENBLATT annual “Masters of Marketing” conference in October, the Association of National Advertisers, a trade group with a large number of the country’s biggest brands among its membership, polled its attendees about how they will adjust their current marketing spend in 2009 to account for the down economy. The bad news is that 33% of the 1,400 respondents said marketing spending will be cut back next year. But another 33% of those polled said they will keep budgets constant, although they might change their marketing mix in the coming year. And almost as many—27%—said they intend to increase their total marketing spend still spending more time online, still get a growing share of their news, entertainment and product information from new media, and still expect to exert some control over the marketing messages that reach them. That might be why, when asked to identify the medium that offered their brands the greatest opportunity for growth, those same marketers polled by the ANA last month pointed most often to social media campaigns (28%), and ranked viral marketing/PR (19%) ahead of traditional TV spots (17%), with Web advertising right behind(16%). In the cellar: print ads (7%), direct marketing (7%) and radio (5%). “The ROI on an advergame is still so much better than that of a typical online display ad that even though online budgets get reduced, we expect the number of requests we get to increase,” he says. “Casual games will continue to be used to attract and engage soccer moms because the audience will still be there. Just because Continued on page 27 Promo / WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM / December 2008 25 http://WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Promo - December 2008

Promo - December 2008 Contents Editor's Note Alternative Viewing UGC Refresher Course KFC Takes Wing Title Sharing the Holidays That Holiday Glow Wish List Commentary Ready to Eat Recession Busters Q&A: A Higher Mark Resource Center The Agency Center Gift Giving Index of Advertisers

Promo - December 2008

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