That's so yesterday

The allure of the "new" seems to be affecting executives in the U.S. who choose how to allocate marketing dollars and the news is not good for traditional media like magazines. If a study of the attitudes of these senior executives is correct, reported in Media Daily News, they are going to divert something close to 10% of their spending towards new media and alternative marketing strategies that emphasize "buzz", such as word of mouth.

Blackfriars Communications projects a 13 percent increase in overall marketing spending in 2006; this absolute increase might mitigate the large percentage fall in traditional ad budgets somewhat, but while companies allocated about 31 per cent of marketing budgets to traditional advertising in 2005, they are expected to spend only 22 per cent in 2006. Its based on the executives' dissatisfaction with the return on their investment in traditional means (such as on-page advertising). Paradoxically, they are switching away to largely unmeasurable and ephemeral alternatives.