Over the last twelve months many people have asked me I was concerned about the pending recession and how I thought our industry will fare. I’ve watched a lot of changes happen in the digital marketing world both from the perspective of a boutique shop and now as large publicly traded organization. I can tell you what I know:

• It will be challenging for smaller shops that are dependent on advertising agencies. Traditional agencies are attempting, in most cases unsuccessfully, to build out their own interactive teams or are working with the agencies that were recently purchased by their holding company.
• In my dealings with clients I don’t get a sense that there are any radical cutbacks except perhaps with companies in the financial market.
• A year ago I predicted that if the recession did kick in that budgets would continue to shift towards digital as it had one of the most clear methods of tracking ROI

According to several news sources including this excerpt from AdAge:

The first quarterly Epsilon CMO Survey reveals that nearly two-thirds of chief marketing officers said their interactive/digital marketing budgets have increased in the past year, while 60% have seen their traditional advertising budgets go south.

The survey, conducted last month, comprised 175 CMOs and marketing executives from some of the country’s biggest marketers. More than a quarter of participants work at companies with annual revenue of $10 billion or more.

CMOs are not only trying to get maximum bang for their buck, but their also hoping to leverage any world of mouth benefits associated with digital campaigns. The number one area of interest for new investment witht the surveyed CMOs was social media like social networking site and “viral” marketing. The second most popular area of interest was blogs.

Although I’m excited by this news as it spells good things for our industry (and my area of expertise) I am a bit surprised to see blogs as a top area of interest. It should be a mastered area of expertise at this stage in the game, but I guess that’s why a lot of these companies still need qualified digital agencies to lead their digital strategy and creative execution.