BTL Spending to Handily Beat ATL: Study

http://promomagazine.com/news/btl_spending_study_020206/index.html
Below-the-line spending is expected to grow 7.8% annually from 2003 to 2007, outpacing above-the-line advertising, projected to grow by an average 5.5% each year.

The findings support a growing shift in marketing expenditures from brand building to direct-response oriented promotion channels, according to a report released last week by the Winterberry Group http://www.winterberrygroup.com , a New York consulting firm.

The study also found the ATL spending was expected to grow 5.6% last year, a 1.7% lift behind overall marketing spending. By 2007, that difference will be more pronounced, with ATL spending growing 4.6% compared with 7.3% overall.

In contrast, nearly all BTL channels are projected to grow in excess of 6.9% annual growth forecast for the whole industry between 2003 and 2007. Interactive marketing-including search, e-mail and online ads-will be leading the pack.

According to PROMO's 2005 Industry Trends Report http://www.promomagazine.com/research/industrytrends/marketing_riding_tide , promotional marketing spending was on the rise for the third consecutive year, coming in a 8.9% in 2004. (PROMO's 2006 Industry Trends Report will appear in the upcoming April issue of PROMO Magazine).

• Winterberry Group identified the follow seven trends directly affecting the shift in marketing budgets:
  
• Changing consumer demographics decrease the influence of traditional mass-media (i.e. "one-size-fits-all") marketing messages.
  
• Growing consumer sophistication heightens the demand for channel-agnostic communications.
  
• Widespread marketing "clutter" diminishes the impact of commercial messages that don't address specific and individually relevant consumer needs.
  
• Enhanced information availability empowers both marketers and consumers with insight that allows for precise customer targeting and intelligent purchase decisions.
  
• Heightened client pressure to deliver quantifiable value forces marketing service providers-especially agencies-to re-evaluate services platforms.
  
• Growing effectiveness of "multichannel" campaigns (those that cross multiple media) reinforce demand for tactics that establish one-to-one relationships between marketers and consumers. The Internet Advertising Bureau found that well-executed multi-channel campaigns generate a 7% to 34% sales lift.
  
• Rapid technological advances allow for consumer/marketer interactions that are frequent, easier and more relevant than previously possible.
  

In the report, above-the-line marketing channels were defined to include TV, radio, print, outdoor and yellow pages. Below-the-line was defined as database marketing, direct mail, interactive marketing, insert media and promotion marketing.

The report was commissioned by V12 Group, a provider of below-the-line marketing services.