At least, that’s the conclusion to be reached if the media reaction to the recent survey on marketing budgets by our sister company, MindMetre, is anything to go by. Pushing against the incessant tide of economic despondency, MindMetre’s results indicate a dramatic upsurge in the proportion of companies planning on increasing their marketing budgets in 2012, suggesting that business confidence amongst British firms is, in fact, on the rise.
The immediate and widespread coverage the story received – starting with a feature on the BBC News website – spoke not only of the perennial appeal of quality research but also of an insatiable appetite for optimism in a media environment awash with talk of Eurozone collapse and double-dip recession.
But the enthusiasm which greeted MindMetre’s story cannot simply be dismissed as a symptom of the general thirst for something – anything – to puncture the overriding gloom. Its findings chime in with the results of other studies, charting an encouraging trend. Marketing Week ran the story alongside a global marketing index published by the intelligence service Warc (which, incidentally, also covered MindMetre’s findings), reporting improved business sentiment amongst marketers in the US, Asia Pacific, and even, to a lesser extent, the struggling Eurozone.
The widespread coverage the story has received demonstrates pretty clearly that if you have something really noteworthy to say, it will get the attention it deserves in the internet-fed world of modern communications. In addition to featuring in the national media, as well as in prominent marketing and CRM publications (including Marketing Magazine and mycustomer.com), the interest generated by MindMetre’s story extended far beyond the UK. No one involved imagined it would generate coverage as far afield as Ghana, or appear on such diverse sites as the Vietnam Daily News or Oman.net. The story was covered in a number of different languages, and, apart from the odd minor modification to the name of our distinguished leader, Paul – Pablo, anyone? – little was lost in translation.
MindMetre’s findings include an analysis of Britain’s regions, and their relevance to local business was illustrated by the extent to which the story was embraced by the regional press, receiving print coverage in Anglia Business and the Yorkshire Post. In the Leicester Mercury, the story was incorporated into a wider article covering the recent success of a local events management and PR firm, proving that the findings of MindMetre’s survey are being translated into real results on the ground. The full article is available here.
The rate of the story’s spread was positively viral, and saw it pop up in some unlikely places, including Kitchens and Bathrooms News and the official site of Queens Park Rangers Football Club, wearetherangersboys.com. Inevitably, it also made its way onto social media sites, where it was voraciously devoured and transmitted by users of Facebook and Twitter. MindMetre’s findings seem to have caught the prevailing mood, both corroborating co-existing research and pointing towards sunnier economic climes.
Eleanor Caine
Tags: Asia Pacific, British firms, coverage, CRM, Eurozone, Ghana, marketing budget, MindMetre, National Media, PR, UK, US