Optimism Declines Among Ad Execs, All Media Impacted, Even Online

Optimism Declines Among Ad Execs, All Media Impacted, Even Online
by Joe Mandese
ADVERTISING EXECUTIVES HAVE GROWN SOMEWHAT more pessimistic about their plans for increasing the shares of their advertising budget for all media, but some media - especially online - seem to be holding up better than others. The finding, which comes from the latest wave of Advertiser Perceptions twice annual survey of advertisers and agency media buying executives, indicates a marked drop in the percentage of ad executives who expect their share of ad budgets to increase over the next six months for all the media measured. The worst hit of all the media, not surprisingly, were broadcast media outlets. Only 16% of ad executives expect radio's share of spending to increase over the next six months, down from 26% when Advertiser Perceptions conducted a similar study last spring, and down from 19% when it conducted it last year. Optimism for broadcast TV, meanwhile, dropped to dropped 22% in this survey from 29% in each of the last two surveys.

The most recent study is based on the results of 2,047 ad executives who completed an online survey in October and November 2007. The last study was conducted in April and May of 2007, and the previous wave was conducted in October and November of 2006.

While the optimism for online media fell slightly from the spring 2007 results, it has actually improved from the year ago sentiment (see table below).

Other notable declines in optimism appear to be impacting newspapers and mobile media.
Joe Mandese is Editor of MediaPost.