It's an undeniable fact. Business owners, both in New Zealand and the rest of the world, are responding to leaner economic times, by slashing their advertising budgets.
In February 2009, TVNZ announced that it would be cutting $25million from budgets over a four month period to cover a decline in advertising . In the UK, a Bellwether report showed that 35% of British companies had reduced their ad spend in the third quarter of 2008.
I hope that a need to pull back on certain areas of expenditure will cause more companies to explore more effective, value for money approaches, rather than sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring their marketing obligations altogether.
Public relations is one way of getting more bang for your buck. The market exposure you get from a well executed PR campaign is often much greater than an expensive, flashy ad campaign. This is generally because PR is slower burning and is an ongoing, ever evolving process, whereas advertising is hard hitting (e.g. a big TV ad or a series of print ads) but is gone (and sometimes forgotten...) just as quickly
PR also has an extra advantage in that it is much more credible than advertising. According to Forrester Research, nine out of ten people don't trust advertising while nine out of ten people do buy on the basis of peer recommendation. This is predominantly down to the rise of social media; increased consumer generated content in mainstream media and easier access to media across platforms.
I have to add that, despite what today's blog image implies, I am not an advertising hater ! I think that the most effective campaigns are those that combine both advertising and public relations. One fantastic example is the ongoing global Dove Campaign for Real Beauty.
The best way of ensuring value for money is by using a company that can provide a fully integrated PR and advertising programme.
