UK companies have increased the proportion of their marketing
budget allocated to PR expenditure to over seven per cent, according to
a Marketing Forum 1998 survey due to be released later this month.
PR allocation figures had dived from ten per cent of company budgets in
1994 to a low of six per cent last year.
Olivia Dagtoglou, project manager of Richmond Events, the company which
organised the forum and compiled the research, said that this year’s
survey shows PR allocation has started to increase for the first time
since the survey was launched in 1993.
Marketing directors from the 521 companies which attended the sixth
Marketing Forum in September this year on board the Oriana were quizzed
for the survey. It reveals that companies are spending more on their
public relations as awareness of ’the power of effective PR’
increases.
The average annual marketing budget for products, services and
consultancy was pounds 14.64 million.
According to the survey, over 45 per cent of the 521 respondents said
they expect to increase PR spending within the next 12 months.
Respondents included Abbey National, Boots, British Airways and BT.
Richmond is launching a communication directors’ forum in May next year.
