LONDON (Brand Republic) - Double the amount of companies raised their marketing budgets than cut them for the first quarter of 2001, indicating that marketing expenditure is set to grow despite forecast cutbacks in growth, according to a survey out today.
The Bellwether Report, published by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, said 40% of companies had raised their annual advertising and marketing budgets from last year for the first quarter.
Bruce Haines, president of the IPA, said the figures may be surprising as they go against an expected downturn and, instead, present a picture of 鈥渟teady as she goes鈥.
鈥淭he optimism about a second-half recovery might actually have substance. The good news is that since the recession of 10 years ago, UK businesses have learned the value of their advertising and marketing communications expenditure and have realised that today鈥檚 circumstances offer the cheapest time to win brand-share,鈥 Haines said.
The survey also showed that companies setting new marketing budgets in the first quarter reported that spend allocated to direct marketing had increased by a proportionally greater extent than for all other main marketing activities, while sales promotion budgets again showed the smallest rise.
There was no movement on digital budgets, with advertisers allocating 1.8% of their total current financial year budgets to the internet, the same figure as in the final quarter of last year.
The Bellwether Report is a quarterly survey of marketing expenditure produced for the IPA by NTC Research and is based on the responses of more than 200 marketing professionals.