Online in Troubled Times

Adopting new-media tactics could be compulsory, of course, for advertisers trying to reach a specific target consumer. Teens and young adults will expect their favorite brands to follow them around the Web. Other marketers might be looking to learn more about how to use these new channels, socking away expertise that can give them an edge when budgets loosen up.

And social networking campaigns can actually be assembled for relatively low cost, as one respondent to this year's survey notes: “Social networking is a focus for us right now. We are a lean organization and looking for alternatives that we can manage (manpower-wise) and not spend a huge investment.”

But as it has in past years, the 2009 Promo Interactive Survey suggests one additional reason why marketers may be willing to take a chance on hard-to-measure media: a surprising number of them say they don't know what kind of ROI they're getting from any of their interactive channels.

More than one-third of respondents to this year's poll (37.7%) said they either “do not know” or “do not measure” to see how the ROI from interactive marketing compares to that in traditional channels. While those “know-nothings” are a smaller proportion of the response than they were last year, when almost half of respondents said they didn't have the information to compare online ROI to offline, it's still a surprisingly large contingent confused about cost-effectiveness.

That's too bad, because the proportion of respondents who say the ROI from interactive marketing beats that from traditional channels is at an all-time high in this survey: 34%, with another 13.9% reporting that both online and offline are equally profitable.

“As budgets are cut, focus increases on interactive because it's cost-effective,” one anonymous respondent wrote.

But in the words of another, “[The interactive industry is] moving at a record pace, but who is tracking the results?”

WAYS AND MEANS

Related to cost-effectiveness is the specific effect interactive marketers are hoping for from those costs. Like last year, when asked to check off all the reasons they did interactive marketing, respondents cited “building brand” as their top strategic aim online (73.7%), with “drive Web traffic” in second place (68.4%) and “build loyalty”at third (63.2%).

Interestingly, “generate sales,” the fourth most common answer last year, dropped into fifth position (53.4%), outpaced this year by “build e-mail list” (59.5%). It's a small shift but perhaps an early indicator that the Web is being valued more for continuing conversations with brand fans than for closing sales.

As for where they're finding the budget for their interactive campaigns this year, results largely track with past Promo surveys. The large majority of respondents say their online budgets, at least, are uncharged this year. Of those who report an increase, the largest proportion (about one in five respondents) say the new funds are coming from budgets that would have been spent on traditional offline media such as TV, radio and print. That's a bit larger than last year's 17.8%.

Another 6.6% told Promo they were moving money from traditional promotion channels such as free-standing inserts or offline sweepstakes into interactive campaigns this year, while 4.5% said they would dip into funds previously allotted for B-to-B marketing.

But last year, almost 9% of respondents said their interactive spending would increase as part of an overall increase in their 2008 marketing budgets; another near 9% said online spending would go up even though the overall spend would decrease. For this year's survey, only 5.8% said they will boost interactive spending while keeping the rest of the budget stable. And only a lucky 7% said that an increase in online marketing spend this year would be part of an overall boost in their marketing budgets.

In fact, among write-in comments to the survey, “budgets” were mentioned as the key challenge to interactive marketing this year more often than any other factor. (That includes “cash” and “money” as one-word answers, and one plaintive use of “$”.)

Continue on Page 3