Media Buyers Gloomy on Everything But Mobile and Online

(MoneyWatch)  In Ad Age today, a survey of media buyers from both agencies and marketers, asking them to posit whether their share of ad spend in certain media types is likely to increase, decrease, or stay the same. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the only three types come out with a majority of those surveyed expecting an increase: Cable TV, online and mobile advertising:


Online and mobile are clearly where media buyers plan to increase budgets, but in some ways, the bloom has come off the rose even for even for that duo: in April/May of 2007, 79 percent of media buyers were thought they would increase their media spend in online, while only 72 percent think so now. Mobile has fallen off even more, from 63 percent to 53 percent.

But really, it's every type of media that has seems to be suffering. Among the biggest losers are national and local newspapers. In April/May of 2007, 27 percent of media buyers thought their ad spend in national newspapers would decrease, versus 44 percent now. Locals fare a bit better, with 32 percent in April/May of 2007 foreseeing a fall, versus 40 percent now. In addition to national and local newspapers, more media buyers are anticipating spending less in outdoor, radio, and broadcast.

Such across-the-board doom and gloom is tough for an industry already feeling a bit pessimistic. The Ad Age article notes that agencies and marketers not only expect to buy less, they expect to have fewer clients to buy for:

The study also found that the number of brands committed to advertising, on average, is down. The overall number of brands buyers are considering for online, TV and print buys in the next six months has fallen from 58 last year to 47 this year. The total number of brands buyers said they were committed to advertising within the next six months has fallen from 25 to 19.