The Daily Dose of Digital

The Daily Dose of Digital – 08/07/22

The Daily Dose of Digital 💉👾Daily (almost) digital marketing news & tidbits of tech which can help businesses deliver great experiences.

The Daily Dose of Digital - James Gray The Daily Dose of Digital – 08/07/22

Published Date: 2022-07-08

Created Date: 2022-07-08

Author: James Gray

Happy Friday all! Is it a TFI Friday for you, or just another day in the dream factory? Whatever it is, I hope you absolutely smash the day and enjoy your weekend. For today’s Daily Dose of Digital, it’s got to be a bit political, right? (“LATERZ BORIS” – stay tuned for some Boris related memes at the end for a bit of Friday Fun).

The UK Government recommends ad spend cuts:

The UK Government recommending UK businesses to cut their advertising and marketing spends is obviously going to ruffle a few feathers in the digital marketing community. After all, it’s a vital pillar for many businesses and agencies that service those businesses.

But it’s not a knee-jerk reaction from the marketing world to push back against this advice. History has taught us that brands that continue to invest in advertising, even at an awareness/brand level, win-out over those who cut their spend (once the bad times are over and things return to some sense of ‘normal’). This is the same for recessions, general economic downturns and after the pandemics (SARS, Covid, etc).

The irony of the Government using a marketing agency to spread this message is not lost on me.

Part of the challenge here is not only the future impact on the brands who chose to make these cuts, but also the more acute fact that for every £1 spent on advertising, £6 is generated in GDP. I’ll let you do the maths on that one.

There are, of course, cases where businesses operating very closely to their break-even point and without sufficient cashflow or equity to ‘ride out’ stormy times are going to have to find places to make cuts. There’s no denying that. But even for these businesses, cutting ad spend could prove more costly than beneficial for the long term sustainability and growth of the business.

What do you think? Will you be cutting your ad spend, or if you’re agency-side have you started to see clients thinking about it? Let me know in the comments.