How the Recession has/will affect Advertisers

With the financial markets taking a enormous hit, and consumers facing a huge credit crunch, it is safe to assume that sales have been lower and shall continue to fall until the world economy begins to revive itself. This however could prove to be extremely volatile, and there is no definite time line, with no end in sight, economist had predicted the worst was over, but this idea was smashed with yesterdays bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, as well as the US government having to bail out AIG, the ramifications being seen on stock exchanges all over the world today.

In the face of recession/ depression, advertisers have had to become tighter and wiser with their dwindling budgets, many realizing the power of Social Media and its incredible ROI rate. "Companies are being lured by the idea of millions of views for free, have suddenly taken an interest in the now wildly popular marketing tactic and video sites, blogs, and forums have the traffic to prove it."

Strategies For Interactive Marketing In A Recession (The report is free and open for public access) shows companies will continue to invest online, even increasing their online campaign budgets, as they realize its power and potential.

"Online display ads won't be hit too hard -brand advertisers seeking cheaper media could turn from TV and print to online video and flash ads.
Money will flow toward search - Google and other search-based firms could actually see prices increase as marketing dollars cut from mass brand advertising begin to flow into performance-based search
Email marketing will increase -existing customers are far more likely to listen to your messages in a recession than new prospects
Social Applications Could Thrive - social programs leverage the voice of the customer to get messages carried further than ad impressions, they're cheap and they motivate consumers in the middle of the funnel."

I found this very interesting article, and accompanying graph..

The question that was posed to marketers:
Assuming the economy is in a recession in the next six months, how would you change your investment in interactive marketing overall?

Of 333 interactive marketers surveyed, 26% plan to increase their interactive marketing investments, and 46% will maintain them at current levels. (13% plan a decrease and 15% aren't sure.)

As Winston Churchill famously once said, "There are lies, damn lies - and statistics!"
but I do think these definitely highlight the trend, accompanying the recession as advertisers move away from "old media" to the new, and easily accessible and clearly far more beneficial (to business) Social Media!