• Phoenix Business Journal, Tuesday, May 20, 2008 10:16 AM

Conventional wisdom says advertising budgets are the first to go when the economy heads south. But a new survey from the CMO Club suggests that may not be the case this time.

Seventy-one percent of chief marketing officers in the study do not plan on cutting their company's marketing budget, while only 14% said they would. The reason? CMOs may finally be listening to their ad agency executives, who've been saying for years that advertising is more important than ever during a recession. Responses from the survey suggest the message might be getting through.

Not surprisingly, online strategies such as search engine optimization and online marketing campaigns were cited as the least likely to be cut, followed by public relations campaigns. Full results of the survey will be presented at The CMO Club "You're Not Alone Anymore" Summit today in New York.

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