New ANA Recession Survey Results

By Bill Duggan

ANA recently fielded the sixth edition of our “Recession Survey,” a survey initiated in the depths of the recession in 2008 to understand how the economic atmosphere is affecting client-side marketers.

A key finding from the current survey is that client marketing budgets continue to be under pressure.  84% of marketers say that they are challenged with identifying cost savings and reductions in their current marketing and advertising efforts, which is a slight increase compared to last year’s survey (77%).  It is notable that this stat peaked in early 2009 (93%).

Marketers who said that they are currently challenged with identifying cost savings and reductions in their marketing and advertising efforts were asked how they plan to reduce costs and expenditures. The most popular way is departmental travel and expense restrictions (68%). Additionally, many marketers plan on challenging their agencies to reduce internal expenses/identify cost reductions (52%) as well as reducing advertising campaign media budgets (48%).

The new reality is that marketers will continue to be conscientious of their spending, even as the economy recovers.