Many marketers to change ad agency this year

The Chief Marketing Officer Council’s recently released annual forecast predicts that, in 2008, many marketers will be changing strategies to focus more on online activity. This process, they found, will also see many marketers changing their advertising agencies.

by Helen Leggatt

CMO%20logo.jpg Online marketing activity, such as email campaigns and search-engine marketing, will attract a larger chunk of budget this year as marketers continue to focus on innovative online strategies.

"A lot of research we've done shows that web is the top priority in terms of brand, customer engagement, insight, and it is becoming a bigger area of focus," said Dave Murray, executive vice president of the CMO Council.

The CMO survey found that half of the 825 respondents plan to increase overall spending, 37 percent expect spending to remain the same as last year and 13 percent expect their budgets to decrease.

The survey also found that 45 percent of marketers intend to change at least one of their advertising agencies this year. Web design and development shops were top of the list of agencies to be changed, followed by direct marketing agencies, general marketing ad agencies and public relations companies.

"The CMOs tell us that the agencies are not delivering," said Dave Couture, principal, Deloitte Consulting, sponsors of the survey. "A 'lack of innovation,' 'no value-added thinking,' and 'poor creative and/or poor quality' are their biggest complaints."