From the "thanks for the heads up" department, via MediaDailyNews:
The U.S. advertising marketplace still may not be in a technical recession, but the spending confidence of U.S. advertising executives has been eroding for the past year, according to a twice-annual survey of some top marketers and media buyers. The study, the Media Economy Report conducted by Advertiser Perceptions Inc., found that the percentage of advertising budgets that are expected to increase over the next six months fell to 33% during the April/May period that its most recent survey was conducted, an eight percentage point drop from the Spring of 2007. The percentage of advertising budgets expected to decline during that period, increased five percentage points to 23%.
Just to reiterate: This study was conducted last spring, when everyone had formally acknowledged that yes, things weren't going so well. But in retrospect spring 2008 looks like halcyon days.
