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â–¶ Advertisers Trim Budgets—More Room for PR?
Half of the biggest advertisers in the U.S. trimmed their budgets during the last quarter, including behemoths like Procter & Gamble, AT&T and Verizon. According to Kantar Media, Procter & Gamble witnessed a 13.2% slide in the second quarter to $577 million. AT&T claimed second place in Q2 2011, but cut back by 21% to $376m in Q2 2012. The drop in ad spending could free up budgets for increased communications efforts, known to be a less expensive and effective alternative to advertising. Other findings include:
• Verizon logged a 14.7% contraction to $327 million. Time Warner, the media owner, was similarly down by 12.9% to $298 million. News Corp., from the same sector, was also at $298 million, representing a 6.8% decrease in spending.
• In automotive, General Motors recorded an even larger decline, of 30.1%, to $292 million. Toyota, its rival, posted a 22.7% leap to $285 million.
• Unilever was up 48.6% to $278 million. It thus replaced Pfizer in the top 10. The pharmaceutical firm slashed its ad spending by 15.9% in Q1 year on year to $301 million, and delivered a further dip in Q2.
• Retail was up by 0.9% to $3.8 billion, while automotive grew by 7.7% to $3.3 billion. Telecoms lodged a 2.4% decrease to $2 billion and financial services brands were down by 3.4%, coming in at just over $1.9 billion.
• As a group, the top 10 advertisers registered a 5.5% drop in advertising expenditure, to $3.6 billion. The top 100 marketers, together accounting for 40% of revenues, boosted their outgoings by 1.1%.
Source: Kantar Media
â–¶ All Sides Agree—Good Benefits Communications are Lacking:
A study by Guardian Life Insurance Company of America finds that benefits communications are a point of contention with both employers and employees. Fewer than 4 in 10 employers (37%) say that their benefits communications are very effective in helping employees make the right benefits decisions. Only 34% of employees say that the benefits communications they receive are very effective. Other study highlights include:
• 70% of employees who were able to receive benefits communications in their preferred channel said they were very confident in their benefits selections versus just 57% of those who did not.
• Workers who were able to enroll in their preferred channel were more satisfied with their overall benefits package (70%).
• During the enrollment period, workers want to receive their benefits communications through multiple channels. In fact, almost 20% of employees would like to receive benefits communications through six or more options.
• 80% seek the ease and convenience of being able to sign up for benefits online so they can enroll when and where they choose.
Source: Guardian Life Insurance Company of America