The vast majority of marketers are cutting their marketing budgets saying that they don’t have the money since COVID-19.
From a survey of 477 UK marketers, just 7% stated that their brands are taking a strategic approach to invest more in marketing during the coronavirus pandemic. The vast majority have been forced to maintain or cut spend in the face of business disruption.
That compares to 29% who state that their approach is to maintain their spend and 50% who state they are making cuts so they can survive the storm. A further 14% feel it is too early to know what their strategic response to marketing will be.
When asked to describe how their organisations are making decisions, 27% confirmed their marketing strategy was based mostly on instinct, 13% stated it was mostly based on data, and 60% stating it was a balance of the two.
Looking at funding in specific areas, offline media is taking the biggest hit with 57% of marketers cutting their budgets in this area. However, 41% are maintaining their budgets and just 3% have increased.
In the digital marketing space, 32% are cutting budgets, 44% are maintaining and 24% are increasing their spend.
The data also suggests that finance and leadership teams across the business understand why investing in marketing might be important during the current crisis. They cite data from previous recessions indicating that those which stand out can emerge more strongly, but simply don’t have the budget to do so.
Almost half (46%) of respondents said that if they asked to increase media spend, there wouldn’t be any budget to spend. Some 32% of marketers stated that their finance department would ask them to prove the case before they would consider it, while just 13% felt that finance would ask for a plan on how to do it, before allowing them to proceed.
Shifting marketing priorities
Not only are budgets under pressure, but priorities are shifting. Almost a third (29%) of respondents confirmed they are making more investments in brand values, for example through charity donations.
A similar number are reallocating budgets from acquisition to retention, while 45% are changing their ads or their content to make them more relevant to the current situation. Almost half (47%) are shifting messaging to emphasise their digital fulfilment, products or services.
Brands are also shifting resources. Some 19% say they are switching from third parties to in-house, while 47% are shifting people between teams to meet new demands.
While the figures are a concern for many marketers, it is not all doom and gloom. There are some positive signs coming out of the new ways of working. Some 42% of marketers say they have seen innovation in customer communications, while 43% say they have made use of innovations in marketing messaging and branding that they might use post-outbreak.
