Advertising shift permanent

28Jun09

I’ve been reading Neil Shoebridge in BRW for  years and admire the fact that he always tells it like it is. In the current issue of BRW he is doing just that. His piece, “Advertising shift permanent” will be bad news for traditional media owners who think that things will bounce back post-recession.

Shoebridge notes that executives in FTA television and newspaper, who have suffered most from the advertising downturn,  believe that the good times will return soon and that the worst is over.

But speaking to marketers and media agency executives, Shoebridge reveals that the drop in ad spending is part of a much greater shift, rather than the economic cycle.

The global financial crisis and Australia’s near-recession acceleratd a trend that has been going for several years, that is, the steady drift of marketing dollars from mas media such as free-to-air TV, newspapers, magazines and radio to more accountable forms of marketing such as “new” media – primarily the internet – and in-store promotions.

Patrick Stahle of Aegis Media is referred to, saying that unlike previous downturns,

…the shift of money….to the internet and in-store promotions will not suddenly be reversed when economic conditions improve…The recent shift, he argues, is permanent.

Shoebridge concludes:

Marketers have long worried about the fragmentation of mass media and the ever-rising cost of reaching consumers who are paying less attention to “old” media and devoting more time to “new” media. At the same time, they have searched for more accountable forms of marketing. Tough economic times made that search more urgent and led many marketers to marketing vehicles such as the internet. It is unlikely they will ditch…those vehicles as the economy improves.

I couldn’t agree  more.

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