Marketers and media agencies 'change Christmas strategies' amid High Street concerns
More than 60% of marketers and media agencies have readjusted the Christmas sales plans they set out at the beginning of the year because of fears of a poor festive sales period.
That is according to qualitative research from 20 media agency planner/buyers and marketers carried out by O2 Media.
It analysed marketing campaigns in the run up to Christmas and found that following growing concerns of a weak Christmas (40% are nervous about the current economic climate) 63% of respondents have re-planned the festive campaigns they initially created in Q1.
As part of this readjustment, 71% have included mobile in their marketing mix and 65% have increased their investment in mobile.
Just over half (52%) said they had increased their spend in search, 50% in online, 22% in radio, 15% in TV and only 10% had increased their spend in outdoor.
Some 63% said they had no contingency budget for Q4 and of the remaining 37%, 31% of those have less than £100,000 leaving many marketers few options if their campaigns are failing to hit their targets.
Gary Cole, the commercial director at O2 Media, said: “What we are seeing is marketers having to react quickly to difficult economic conditions at critical buying times with little move for manoeuvre in terms of additional budget spend."