Advertising: The Bottom Line

For the second year in a row, BusinessWeek joined the Effie Awards to get the lowdown on the ad industry

by Burt Helm

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Is green marketing a real, concerted effort to improve the environment, or just a cynical attempt to cash in on a trend? What's the future of traditional advertising? Which brand has been doing a good job in terms of both awareness and building a positive image in the eyes of consumers? For the second year in a row, BusinessWeek joined the Effie Awards—the prizes given to the year's most effective advertising campaigns by the New York American Marketing Assn.—to find answers to questions like these. The award winners will be announced June 4.

A group of Effie judges, who gathered for the judging in New York in March, answered a 15-question survey. While consisting of only 108 people, and with a heavy U.S. focus, the panel is an influential one: Judges this year included top-level executives from brands including American Express (AXP), Citigroup (C), and Kraft (KFT), and ad agencies including BBDO and Leo Burnett. The survey is unscientific, but it provides a quick take on what's on the minds of leaders in the U.S. advertising industry.

The questions considered the nuts and bolts of a marketing budget in 2008, and the answers were illuminating, if not always surprising. Forty-five percent of the judges are increasing their online brand advertising spend, while newspapers are taking the biggest hit. Respondents also addressed questions about the future of the industry and possibly disruptive trends, as well as some of the most recent trends in advertising, from green marketing to social networking.

Advertisers for Obama

More than anything, it's clear the surveyed marketers are looking to wrap their heads around the quickly changing world of digital. When asked: "What emerging area of marketing does your brand need to address most immediately?" 44% answered that the digital cutting edge, social networks, and in-game advertising were the issues foremost in their minds. Next came addressing the Hispanic market, an area of concern for 25% of the judges.

This year's survey also asked respondents about the upcoming U.S. Presidential election. Advertisers, it seems, have a thing for Barack Obama, with a full 40% saying they currently planned to vote for him. Hillary Clinton was a distant second at 21%. When it came to the concept of negative advertising, the respondents were split: 54% answered that yes, in one form another, negative advertising works, while the other 46% said they didn't think negative ad messages were a successful strategy in 2008.

The judges were also polled on the trends or companies that might disrupt the advertising industry in the near future. Respondents overwhelmingly gave two answers: the state of the economy and Google (GOOG). "When there's a contraction, marketing budgets hang out there and they're easy to reduce," says Gary Steele, a former executive vice-president at McCann-Erickson Worldwide who's now advising WPP on Dell (DELL) and who chaired the Effie judging. "And there's some fear that Google might start to act more like an advertising agency," says Steele, pointing to the search giant's recent hires of agency executives and its push into the realms of print, TV, and radio advertising. "They swear they're not doing it, but that causes concern." Here, check out the results of the 2008 survey. (BusinessWeek.com, 4/14/08)

Helm is marketing editor for BusinessWeek in New York .