Survey Shows Some Agency Optimism

The responses to a survey of 200 marketing and 100 advertising agency executives, conducted by RSW/US, a lead generation and business development firm, showed ad agencies to be slightly more optimistic than clients about the prospects for the economy and the advertising business over the rest of 2009.

Agencies participating in the survey, released in mid-May, included Leo Burnett, Mindshare and Bailey Lauerman. Clients included Ford, GE, Kraft, Lego and Lenox.

While 51% of each group said that the second half of the year would see at least some continued falls in ad spending, more agency respondents (42%) felt the economy had already hit rock bottom and would therefore start to improve over the rest of the year than clients (35%).

Mark Sneider, owner, managing director of RSW/US, said, “While it appears some of the worst might be over, it’s probably best if agencies try to do more with less in the short term.”

Some of the feeling in agencies is related to perceptions of how bad things have been in the first half of 2009. Agency execs appear to feel that they have been hit harder than client perceptions of spending levels imply. 53% of agency respondents said that client spending was down 11% or more in the first six months of 2009, while only 39% of clients thought the same. Even more starkly, 30% of agency respondents said that client spending was down 21% or more in the first half, but only 8% of clients thought that spending fell by this much.

But in another reflection of agency optimism, 76% of respondents said they expected to see the number of new business opportunities rise in the second half of 2009.

Running slightly counter to this, more clients expect to keep their headcount the same than do agencies: among client execs, 63% say staff numbers won’t change in 2009, compared with 53% of agencies.

The clearest consensus between the two groups was among those who believe the recession will bottom out sometime next year. Given the choice between later in 2009, sometime in 2010 and sometime after 2010, 89% of the agency and client respondents who did not think we had hit bottom yet picked one of the first two.

Written by Mark Chapman, posted on adweek.com on June 8, 2009