Agency

As we step tentatively into the new year, prospects look pretty grim. With unemployment predicted to top 9%, industry bailouts looming, a massive retrenchment in the stock market and a generally accepted view that things aren’t likely to get better any time soon, it will be all too easy to slide into a state of cynicism, or even despair.

Uncertainty and pessimism color attitudes toward predictions, too, particularly those that dare to suggest resumed growth ahead. Some will have a tendency to regard such forecasts as wishful thinking, or, worse, woefully out of touch.

Shall we throw all predictions out the window?

The Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) and industry-leading research firm Anderson Analytics issued the results of its second annual survey of Top Marketing Trends for 2009. The survey of MENG members, conducted by Anderson Analytics, focused on top marketing concepts, buzz words, global areas of opportunity, targeted customer demographics, as well as the books and thought leaders that marketers look to for inspiration and growth opportunity.

Radio broadcasting pioneer McHenry (“Mac”) Taylor Tichenor, one of the foremost developers of the Hispanic radio industry in the United States, died in Round Rock, Texas, of natural causes on January 3, 2009, at the age of 76.

Seventy-seven percent of Americans believe that the U.S. media is making the economic situation worse by projecting fear into people’s minds.

The U.S. Census Bureau projected the Jan. 1, 2009, total U.S. population will be 305,529,237 — up 2,743,429, or 0.9 percent, from New Year’s Day 2008.

According to a recent analysis of BIGresearch’s SIMM database by Prosper Technologies, wide gaps exist between how ad dollars have been spent versus what consumers say works best when it comes to buying a car. The Prosper analysis and media allocation model utilizes the SIMM Survey of 17,231 consumers to determine “what” and “which” media forms are most influential to consumers for buying a car, the consumption of the media, and pricing of various measured media.

Most of the branding articles that you read are happy, glowing tales of how an agency rebranded a client and turned them into a superstar brand with double-digit growth. Well, this is not one of them.

A Client’s Perspective, which offers insight from agency clientele about their marketing strategies during a sluggish economy and why lack of sales can mean increased opportunity for marketing agencies.

At the turn of the last century, the retailer John Wanamaker famously said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

The overall advertising environment in 2009 was fairly gloomy with slashed budgets and revised strategies to address the new reality. However, that didn’t stop the industry from evolving, and the lessons learned will likely pay-off in the year ahead. For example, advertisers started to look at the need for accountability metrics beyond the simple “click-through” and on to campaign-specific performance. They also started to embrace burgeoning social networks and consumer generated media to bring consumers closer to a product or brand.