The Marketing Week/IPA Bellwether Confidence Index

Confidence among UK marketing executives remained “weak” in the first quarter of 2008, according to the Marketing Week/Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) Bellwether Optimism Survey.

Marketers’ confidence about the financial prospects for their industry has also plunged to a two-and-a-half year low, with just 14% more optimistic about prospects for their industry than they were three months ago, compared to 49% that were less optimistic.

Data suggests that business confidence peaked in the second quarter of last year and has been strongly negative since the credit squeeze, which began in the autumn.

However, marketers were more optimistic about the financial prospects of their own companies, which picked up slightly in quarter one. With 37% of companies citing greater optimism in the quarter but 34% reporting a weakening of confidence, the resulting overall net balance of 2.9% was marginally above the two-and-a-half year low recorded in quarter four.

The data is based on responses from the Bellwether survey panel of marketing professionals at 250 UK companies.

According to the report, published this week, marketers are cutting their budgets for the second con- secutive quarter. The report also reveals budget setting for the rest of 2008 has been downgraded, with weaker than expected sales, subdued consumer spending and ongoing concerns about the health of the UK economy to blame.

Hardest hit were below-the-line activities such as events, PR, market search and direct marketing.