Credit Crunching…

The credit crunch is polarising the marketing landscape.  On the one hand you have some clients retreating to what they know: traditional mass communication. These tend to be the sort of clients for whom anything other than advertising was a tactical support. Being cynical, providing the “nice to have gloss” and therefore easily dispensed.

Alternatively, some clients are using the increased financial pressures to reappraise where most money has been traditionally spent. The old adage of a small advertising budget going a long way in different media really does apply.

Such clients are following examples set by brands who’ve had to box clever for years.  If you’re growing a brand organically and are still independent, you probably won’t have the luxury of big spends and so will have been used to using every medium at your disposal to its best advantage – think Innocent’s packaging which absolutely lives the brand promise, making use of every space to underpin the story.

So where does that leave agencies? In essence, having to be open minded.  A good brand idea shines through in any medium.  Increasingly it’s about what will best engage. A mail, an opinion piece, a blog, an event – all can deliver a rich experience, be the vehicle that starts or maintains a dialogue or simply acts as a prompt to a sale.

At the end of the day, anything that gets us fundamentally questioning what we do, leading to new opportunities and activities, has to be a good thing, and who’d have thought we’d have anything to thank the credit crunch for.

• View all articles
• Next article
• Previous article