• by Masha Geller , September 15, 2003

The online ad industry keeps talking about attracting more ad dollars, but few know exactly where those dollars will be coming from. Good news: it's reasonable to assume that entertainment and automotive categories will continue to increase their spending, but now it's safe to add banking to the list.

Sixty-nine percent of banks will increase their marketing budgets next year, according to the American Bankers Association (ABA) 2003 Bank Marketing Planning Survey. On average, banks will increase marketing budgets by 7% over 2003 budgets. Survey results were released today at the ABA Marketing Conference in Chicago.

The really good news is that Internet-related initiatives such as website development, online banking and bill payment are top marketing initiatives banks plan to pursue during the next 12 months, according to the survey. It's probably a safe bet that an increase in online advertising spending is not far ahead.

Additionally, more than 67% of banks that are planning multicultural campaigns will increase advertising expenditures. Fifty-four percent of banks in this category will increase market research spending. Fifty percent of banks that currently target different ethnic groups will increase advertising spending. Twenty-seven percent of banks in this category will increase marketing research spending.

Overall, 47 percent of banks are either active in multicultural marketing, or plan to market to different ethnic groups. The top three ethnic groups banks target are Hispanics, African Americans and Asians. Almost three out of four banks that target different ethnic communities market to Hispanics.