Bellwether Report Confirms Tough Q4 Measures

The IPA’s Bellwether report for the last quarter of 2001 shows that companies continued to downsize marketing budgets during the period, but suggests that the downward trend may be slowing.

One in three companies were found to have revised their fourth quarter marketing budgets down in response to market pressure. The main beneficiary of the one in five companies which did see an upward revision in budgets was direct marketing. The report also suggests that in general, there will be a decrease in investment and e-commerce activities for 2002.

IPA President, Bruce Haines, said: “These figures continue to show some tactical changes to the media mix brought about by the economy and a possible reflection of end of year revisions.”

The Bellwether report is not entirely gloomy about the future, however, as nearly twice as many companies setting new marketing budgets for the coming year reported a year on year increase as reported a decrease. Haines went on to describe the market place as “cautious”. The increases were seen most in the retail and consumer durables sectors, retail having held up well in the toughening economic climate. The harder hit areas were financial services, travel/transport and entertainment/media.

Chris Williams of NTC Research, who authored the report, said: “There is clearly much uncertainty with regard to business prospects and advertisers are playing a waiting game. However, the Q4 survey suggests very little deterioration in the outlook for marketing spend since the Q3 survey, and the easing in the rate at which media adspend budgets are being trimmed provides promising evidence that we may be at the bottom of the cycle.”

IPA: 020 7235 7020 www.ipa.co.uk

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