Throughout 2010, Australian marketing budgets have increased by 7%. Compare this to next year’s planned marketing budgets and the 4% increase suggests that growth has slowed. However, despite the fact that the average planned rise is lower in 2011, a survey has found that 44% of marketing companies expected a rise of 15% in their marketing budgets.
Key priorities for marketing companies remain unchanged when compared to the last survey carried out. The most important priorities include:
Focusing more on maximising the efficiency of how marketing budgets are spent.
Focusing more on improving and finding new measures to increase sales.
Maintaining brand reputation.
The channels that received the biggest growth in investment in the last year are social networks and applications. Both saw a 10% increase from 2009. Online advertising was next, then viral marketing and direct marketing.
Chief Executive of the Australian Marketing Institute, Mark Crowe said that, ‘Overall, a further increase in budgets is expected, which represents a consolidation of the strong growth that was experienced last year.’
‘Online and new media not surprisingly continue to enjoy high levels of increased usage. However, traditional media can also look forward to increased usage albeit not at the same level.’
The findings were gathered from The Second Annual Senior Marketers Monitor, which is based on 369 responses from senior marketers.
