Economic Recovery Boosts Advertising Industry

Though companies are still trying to do more with less, advertising and marketing budgets are bouncing back, and agencies are using new technology to complement and measure traditional advertising, according to a group of marketing and advertising executives at Utah Business magazine’s roundtable Friday morning.

Company budgets are moving forward for advertising, especially in digital, but some clients are still in recovery from the recession, said Pauline Ploquin, COO and director of client services for STRUCK. The recession taught companies to do more with less marketing money and she sees that continuing in the future. Pricing is also being driven down by competition from smaller agencies, she said.

Marketing and advertising budgets used to be seen as more discretionary money, said Kristi Knight, VP of marketing for Vivint, but now she said as long as she can show a return on investment, the money is available.

“Advertising and marketing was considered discretionary in the past because it was really hard to measure,” she said. “And when the economy gets challenging then you cut down on discretionary spending. So as long as you can show the benefit to the business, I think that’s where the economy has actually helped us get smarter because you have to be able to prove the ROI and metrics.”

In the age of new technology, that return is becoming easier to track. But that does not mean more traditional forms of advertising are defunct, said Leslie Snavely, CHG Healthcare Services VP of marketing. By combining the ease of online tracking with other types of advertisement like TV, radio or billboards, marketing and advertising campaigns are only strengthened.

What it really comes down to is figuring out where the customers are and going to that place, whatever the medium, said Scott Kempema, chief growth officer at MRM // McCann.

“One of the things we have to consider is first and foremost, who the heck are we as a company or client, and then who do we engage with and how do they consume our brand. And if that’s traditional, so be it. By giving it a moniker of traditional, it almost denotes that it’s ineffective, but that’s kind of a strange concept,” he said.

The advertising roundtable will appear in the April issue of Utah Business.