Why Economic Downturn is good for Digital agencies?

Few weeks ago an old client invited me for a meeting over lunch, making it amply clear that it’s a casual meeting and just wants to catch up.  Through the course of our leisurely lunch I realised his agenda. He wanted to understand how they could use digital media to cut costs and at same time achieve their marketing objectives.

He usually bought significant chunk of offline media for his campaigns and would add a vanilla web banner campaign to complete the 360 degree theory.  This time, he wanted to go ‘beyond the banner’ and wanted to explore social media, viral’s, games, the works.

Over next few weeks, I noticed few other clients and industry colleagues too getting increasingly enthusiastic about digital media.

With marketing budgets under the scanner, marketers are pushed to think out of the box.  In a country where advertisers are obsessed with television and print, budgets for web and mobile are last in the value chain. So it’s refreshing to see digital media moving up the value chain in these times of recession.

My guess is digital agencies  especially in countries like India stand to gain maximum and cover lost ground due to global meltdown, simply because…

Digital media is still cheap

Compared to television and print, digital inventory is sweetly cheap! If marketers can reach out to a similar audience at fraction of a cost, it will help them to optimize their reduced marketing budgets.

You can count your audience
Yes, the strongest argument for digital media will just get stronger as marketers discover or rediscover the ROI measurability factor.
Marketers can make an impression

With digital solutions like virals, games, SMO, SEO still perceived as ‘innovation’ it offers a perfect opportunity to marketers make an impression in their marketing reports.
Clients will start understanding the medium better

The scenario will push clients to get more involved with the medium and they would put in that effort to understand digital better.

Good Talent will be handy

With several sectors going easy on recruitment, it might be a good time to hire good talent that might be in circulation. Campus recruitments from B-schools and design / tech institutes would prove to be prudent too.

Though digital media may not be recession proof, digital agencies will surely have nothing to loose and only gain.