Not So New Year

We just released what we’re calling the “Not So New Year Outlook Survey” for responses from Marketers and Marketing Agencies.

We typically release a New Year Outlook survey every year, which is typically good enough. It gives marketers and agencies a look at what each group expects, and more often than not, it all plays out as predicted.

However, this year is different and requires more TLC than a typical year. It necessitates a mid-year look at our collective marketing and agency world.

The last time we released a mid-year survey to take the pulse of the marketing and agency community was in 2008, just after the start of the recession.

2008 was a painful time for many marketers and marketing agencies.?Digital and social media were finding their way into the marketing vernacular.?Marketers saw these platforms as a cheaper way to engage with their customers, while agencies saw them as profit inhibitors and something they weren’t too comfortable with.

Most agencies that jumped into the digital game did so under different brand banners out of fear that it might ultimately bring their primary agency’s brand down if it proved to be a passing fad.

Granted, we’re not in a recession now, but it feels like it to many marketing agencies and marketers. Marketing organizations big and small are letting staff go. Projects are being postponed, budgets are being cut, and the pressures on marketers are growing – to prove the value of every single thing they do.

At some point this all has to give, and marketers and the companies they work for have to realize that holding back and not investing isn’t the best way to move their business forward.?An old marketing CMO of mine once told me “you can’t save your way to prosperity”.

He was right.? And those marketers that are holding back, thinking it’s the best course of action, are just plain wrong.