Businesses ‘still cutting budgets’

The number of businesses applying for a new marketing agency has dropped by nearly a third, as firms continue to cut their budgets, new research has found.

According to AAR, the new business marketplace across all marketing disciplines was down 29.4 per cent compared with the same period in 2008.

Commenting on the findings, Kerry Glazer, chief executive at AAR, said budget cutting was the main factor behind this.

"There is no doubt that there is a significant amount of budget cutting going on," she said, adding that companies which thought they would be spending a certain amount within a 12-month period "have pulled back on spending and are not spending to the level they expected due the state of the economy".

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However, Ms Glazer noted that diminishing confidence was another reason behind the decline as businesses continued to delay certain plans until a time when money was not as tight.