It’s a relative no-brainer to chalk up an 18.5 percent drop in traditional media spend in 2009 to the recession that put a chokehold on the great majority of budgets.
There was a 2.1 percent increase in 2010 to $127.2 billion, likely going in the positive direction because more marketing dollars were allocated as the nation came out of the worst of the financial abyss.
But what are we to make of eMarketer’s forecasted 0.9 percent drop this year in spend with directories, magazines, newspapers, outdoor, radio and television, not to mention the seesaw nature of the estimated spend over the next four years – up 2.2 percent in 2012, down 0.6 percent in 2013, up 0.9 percent in 2014 and down 0.1 percent to $129.1 billion in 2015?
Should we be surprised at all the uncertainty, given the rapid and constant changes in technology and the migration of consumers to the Internet and mobile, among other distractions?
I look at these and other issues in my new iMedia Connection post http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2011/06/14/traditional-media-spend-is-anything-but-traditional/