Australian marketers play waiting game with 2020 adspend budgets

Half of Australian marketers are withholding their budgeted advertising spend for the rest of the year, according to new research from Ipsos and the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), in a waiting game for more stability around COVID-19.

The study found that 68% of SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) and 87% of large businesses still have marketing-related spending budgeted for the next six months. However, most businesses surveyed said that releasing the spending will depend on when retail locations, national and state borders re-open and when employees re-start regular work patterns. As a result, 50% of both large & small businesses have marketing budget sitting on the sides lines waiting to be committed at some point in the near future.