The survey found that advertising is still the most popular form of marketing, accounting for nearly 15 per cent of budgets but firms predict their spend will fall by 0.2 per cent in 2007. By contrast, customer relationship management budgets are up 2 per cent, expenditure on public relations is expected to be 1.5 per cent higher, and online marketing spend is being increased by 3.6 per cent.
      
Lead-generation and customer relationship management each currently account for 12 per cent of marketing spend with direct mail and field marketing on 11 per cent, and internal marketing accounting for 7 per cent.
     
The Institute’s marketing director, Geoff Hurst, said, “Playing by yesterday’s rules is not an option for the modern marketer. Keeping up to date with current thinking and maintaining skills have never been more important.”
     
Digital communication has yet to become mainstream but of the five different strands of digital, viral marketing and corporate blogs are the most popular – ahead of mobile marketing and podcasts - though only one company in 12 admits to using them even to a “fair amount”.
     
Most marketing people believe technology is accelerating the rate of change in promotion, however, and Hurst says, “It is interesting to note that a significant majority of marketers is still not making use of the full spectrum of technologies available to help them communicate with customers.”