Research budgets to fall over the next 12-18 months

Panellists at this morning’s MediaTel Group ‘Future of Media Research’ seminar said that the global financial crisis will negatively impact research budgets over the next 12 to 18 months.

However, in what turned out to be a recurring theme of the discussion, smaller budgets will almost definitely lead to more innovation, said Sheila Byfield, leader, business planning at Mindshare Worldwide.

“Research companies need to be more innovative in the way they charge,” she said. “Creativity extends beyond just the work we do, it also goes into charging.”

She added that researchers “need to be more innovative and creative because the budgets are not there”.

David Fletcher, head of MEC MediaLab, Mediaedge:CIA, said that “most businesses are looking at research as a discretionary cost”.

“I’m glad we had a commitment to proprietary research last year because I would hate to have to be setting a new budget now,” he added.

Touching briefly on JICS, David Brennan, research and strategy director at Thinkbox, said: “The pressure on JICS budgets will be downwards while ad revenues remain where they are.”

He added that the “pressure on budgets will mean we have to put more effort in getting more for them”.