Study Finds Social Nets 'Realistically' Near Top Of 2010 Media Buying Plans

by Joe Mandese, Sep 10, 2009, 7:30 AM

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Social networks may still seem like an emerging medium, if an ad medium at all, on some parts of Madison Avenue, but a new report on the media buying plans of advertisers and agencies indicates that having a "presence on social networks" is one of the top priorities of their media plans for next year. The report, the 2010 Media Planning Intelligence Study, which is being released today by the Center for Media Research in conjunction with InsightExpress, found that 57.7% of respondents "ideally" plan, and 56.3% "realistically" plan to include social media in their media plans next year.

That finding is significant, because it shows the rapid speed with which social media, including social networks like Facebook, micro-blogging services such as Twitter, and other new and emerging formats connecting people to each other online have taken a precedent with both consumers and marketing and advertising industry professionals. It also comes only a few months after Madison Avenue's de facto bean counter, Interpublic forecaster Brian Wieser, conducted a lengthy research and soul-searching process concluding that social media is not a form of advertising, consequently leading him to omit it from Interpublic's official ad spending forecasts.

"We expect that the data and insights in the study can assist agencies and other media planners and buyers to make the case for particular media spending next year," said Chuck Martin, Director of the Center for Media Research, which is a unit of MediaPost Communications that publishes the daily Research Brief newsletter and a variety of research reports aimed at marketers and advertising agency media planning and buying professionals.

lresearch reports.

The base for the new report is a survey of 1,972 MediaPost subscribers conducted between July 17 and Aug. 10, 1,164 of whom said they have "planning, buying or approving responsibility" for their organization's 2010 media plans.

Interestingly, "non-traditional" media such as online, mobile and other emerging media platforms, slightly outweigh the "traditional" media (TV, radio, print and out-of-home) plans among these respondents for 2010: 57% to 43%.

The study also asked respondents to distinguish between what they "realistically" intend to buy in 2010 vs. what they would ideally like to buy, and found that digital and emerging media are the most likely forms to be on their 2010 budgets.

Email marketing was the No. 1 medium, cited by 56.8% of respondents as being a realistic part of their 2010 media plans, followed by social networks (56.3%), keyword search (49.7%), radio (42.2%), magazines (42.1%), online display (40.5%), event sponsorship (36.9%), rich media display (35.5%), direct mail (34.7%), regional TV (32.8%), regional newspapers (31.7%), out-of-home (31.2%), email sponsorship (29.5%), online video (26.7%), mobile SMS text (26.1%), and others. Interestingly, national TV (18.2%) and national newspapers (14.8%), ranked near the bottom of these respondents' realistic 2010 media buying plans.

The report also delineates the differences among respondents based on their job functions, titles, whether they are agency or brand marketing executives, and the degree to which they are responsible for traditional or non-traditional media. It also breaks down the differences between their realistic and idealistic buying expectations and provides an index on the relationship of those plans.

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0 comments on "Study Finds Social Nets 'Realistically' Near Top Of 2010 Media Buying Plans".

1. Kevin Lenard from Business Development Specialist
   

   commented on: September 10, 2009 at 8 a.m.

   "Social Marketing" is really just telemarketing dressed up in a new guise. Like "word of mouth" marketing, its premise is to manipulate conversations.

   If a global media behemoth like Interpublic's Brian Wieser looks at it long and hard and deems it NOT advertising-appropriate (it is PR: http://tinyurl.com/change-marketing ), then the rest of us can be fairly confident that it's not something marketers should be shifting millions of dollars into just because "social media" haa become a hot Twitter topic. Let's hope the more strategic-thinking CMO's out there manage to ignore the hype trickling up from their excitable and easily-influenced Brand Managers.

   http://advertisingbusinessmodelredefined.blogspot.com/

2. Sarah H. from Wellons Communictions
   

   commented on: September 11, 2009 at 9 a.m.

   The economy may be one reason social media marketing is growing so fast. Take these facts: (1) More people are opting to spend time at home in order to save money, and (2) the Internet has become the most important source of entertainment in most households. In fact, according to Jupiter Research, a significant number of consumers report they’d prefer giving up their cars, shopping sprees, pay TV, and movies before surrendering their broadband. That means, an online strategy could be the leading choice for businesses in a rocky economy. Check out "Why a great online video strategy is good for bad times" at: http://endavomediablog.typepad.com/endavo_media_blog/2009/03/why-a-great-online-video-strategy-is-good-for-bad-times-1.html

3. Ed Docnoc from Work From Home Dad
   

   commented on: September 13, 2009 at 6:25 a.m.

   I would have to agree with Sarah H. comment.

   The economy, is a big factor to the growing trend of social networking sites.

   People are begining to see the use of these social sites with interacting and peddling their ideas. O'Kevin touch on this "word of mouth marketing" Many big marketing companies are focusing, their energies and money into
   social websites. People have more time on their hand now with the downturn of the job market in the western countries.

   So look out, the new frontier of making money online is in the social networking sites!

4. Patrick Boegel from Media Logic
   

   commented on: September 18, 2009 at 2:02 p.m.

   Very poorly conceived "social marketing" might be dressed up in a "new guise" but if the premise is to manipulate conversations that will resoundingly fail.

   I am not sure how one conceives of "buying" social media anyway. Perhaps my perception is wrong, only the details of the study will show. But my guess is that most of the media buyers answering "ideally" would buy are still having a hard time transitioning from the days of great TV ratings and the pipe dream of multi-media optimizers.

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