Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
Are Clients Pooling Resources as the Economy Struggles?
In a recent Wall Street Journal article, a Hewlett-Packard manager was quoted as saying that he’s spending more online (on search, in this case) with a flat budget by pooling budgets from different product groups. Meanwhile, HP’s interactive agency consistently sends the message that, for online display advertising, the product groups are completely independent and plan to stay that way in the foreseeable future. This conflicting message comes at a time when online advertising is (anecdotally) fairing well in a struggling economy as budgets move from traditional to digital.
I get the feeling that the concept of pooling resources among product groups is being discussed almost everywhere, but being executed almost nowhere. Just as it’s easy to defend budgets moving online, pooling resources makes perfect sense. But can it be executed effectively? Are the right metrics being considered to assure that each group gets the value they need if they cede some control over their budget to others? Considering how many different goals a single product group has, I just can’t see how these groups could agree upon any measurable success metrics when those goals are intermingled with so many others. But I’m curious to see how this plays out.
Posted in: Ad Spending by Jared Skolnick @ 4:09 pm Permalink |
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