Decline in marketing spend slows
The decline in marketing spend slowed in the first quarter of 2009, according to the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), latest Bellwether survey.
The net balance of the marketing professionals surveyed reporting an increase in the first three months of the year was -34%, still the second steepest decline in the survey’s nine-year history but less than the -42% dip in the fourth quarter of last year.
It also reveals that 45% of companies surveyed revised their marketing budgets down for the current financial year in Q1 while 11% reported an increase. This compares to 49% of companies reporting a decrease in spend and 7% an increase in the last three months of this year.
Moray MacLennan, IPA president, says the data shows the “bottom of the market has been reached”
“It will be a long road to full recovery, but this maybe the turning point. It’s good to see a graph going in the right direction for a change,” he says.
The report shows that internet advertising suffered a record reduction in spend, down by 10% in the first quarter.