CMOs of leading U.S. Brands haven’t ‘Friended’ Social Networking sites.

Despite the cultural phenomenon that Facebook and MySpace have become in five years’ time, 55% of the chief marketing officers at leading brands surveyed by Epsilon said they’re not too interested (22%), or not interested at all (33%), in incorporating the social networking sites into their marketing strategies.

Though dialogue marketing is a bonafide trend in the industry, just 10% percent of CMO survey respondents said they already are using these social sites in their marketing plans.

Internet forums (52%), webcasts and podcasts (47%), email (47%), blogs (37%) and webinars (52%) outscored Facebook and MySpace (35%), in terms of being social media elements that marketing executives said they are very interested or somewhat interested in using.

“These sites narrowly appeal to college and high school students, providing a challenge as far as measuring results and yielding a limited amount of actionable data,” said Steve Cone, Chief Marketing Officer of Epsilon.

Somewhat quixotically, 27% of marketing executives identified social networking and word of mouth as the tool they most want to introduce to their marketing mix to compensate for anticipated budget cuts — ahead of all other elements of traditional or digital marketing.

Other key results from the CMO survey provide a peek into top marketers’ playbooks for the coming year:

– CMOs bracing for budget reductions identified email as the channel they are least likely to cut back on versus any other tool in the traditional or digital marketing mix.

– While just over half of the companies surveyed already use consumer data mining, 23% more said that they plan to utilize the technology in the next 12 months.

– 55% of those not already employing web analytics plan to do so in the next 12 months.

– Customer loyalty and rewards programs remain polarizing, with 33% of companies already using the strategy and 17% planning to use in the next year, but 50% not using or planning to use.

Kevin Mabley, Senior Vice President, Epsilon Strategic Services, noted the value that marketers place on email. “According to our latest benchmark statistics, retailers see 20 cents in e-commerce revenue for every email delivered, showing the measurability and profitability of the email channel in times when people are seeking those two attributes.”

The CMO survey results strongly indicate the economic crisis will diminish marketing spending in 2009. No less than 93% of marketing executives said the current state of the economy will have a moderate or significant impact on their marketing efforts in the next few months. Regarding advertising expenditures specifically, 70% said they’ll decrease spending.

For more information at http://www.epsilon.com