GroupM: Media Market Will Suffer For 3 Years

Adweek: The media marketplace could be mired in a recessionary climate for the next three years, according to Rino Scanzoni, GroupM chief investment officer. He insists that the current downturn will last significantly longer than the dip experienced in 2001. "It will be a very slow process."

Scanzoni, speaking on a International Radio and Television Society panel, said that next year overall media spending could be down 2% to 3% percent -- or flat at best.

But all is not lost. He also cited two positives: Commodity prices are dropping, which eases the pressure on corporate profits, and the downturn should spark innovation as buyers, sellers and clients try to be more effective and efficient.

Pull the other one Rino
You can't blame the economic crisis for all the crap that's going on. We're in a massive state of flux, we have been for the past 8 years. People are continually adapting to new technologies and finding out ways to integrate them into their lives effectively. Unfortunately this has come at the expense of TV viewership taking a hit, magazines not being as luxurious leisure time as it once was and radio being an obsolete thing of the past.

Isn't it convenient that the economic crisis to rival the depression has come right now. Now we can expect media providers to say once the crisis is over, expect media habits to return back to normal. Not gonna happen Rino. Now is the time to use those small budgets with greater efficacy, and find those channels which your consumers respond to. I can tell you, it isn't going to be a tv buy and forget about the impact of the superbowl. All yesteryear. Time to innovate.