Brands suffer crisis of confidence

Marketing departments are guilty of playing their campaign strategies too safe, according to their agency counterparts quizzed in a major new survey.

Is corporate Britain losing its creative edge? asks a major new survey conducted by Blue Skies Marketing Recruitment.

At a time when brand guardians are subject to ever-increasing sales and margin pressures, the agency world clearly wish their clients would demonstrate greater bravery, according to the study.

While a surprising 66 per cent of the overall communications community believe that brands are less brave today, it is agencies that are most sceptical about the current state of the marketing industry - with a whopping 90 per cent of agency respondents saying campaigns are weaker than they were two years ago.

However, marketers working for client companies are split 50-50 as to whether brands are being more creative or adventurous than before, pointing to a distinct clash of perception between in-house and consultancy teams.

"For a country long recognised for its creativity there is reason to believe that corporate Britain is now becoming more introspective," said Ben Vickers, Managing Director of Blue Skies Marketing Recruitment.

"Given that brands can no longer take the authoritative high ground as word of mouth has become the most trusted source of information, marcoms professionals should be more creative and adventurous than ever before".

Vickers added: "This survey demonstrates how the diversification of marketing into the digital medium, evident by the rapid growth of the likes of YouTube and Facebook, has communications professionals hedging their bets on their campaign strategies.

"This is clearly a wake-up call for marketers to seize the moment and get bolder with their output".

The Blue Skies poll, which questioned 599 professionals from across the marketing, PR, creative design and account management sectors - covering agency, client-side and freelance executives.

Back to top