For the first time in three years, marketing-related and CRM technology budgets have seen an increase, according to a survey of visitors to the UK 'Technology For Marketing 2004' event in February 2004.
According to the event's organiser, CMP Information, visitors to the event had an average marketing-related and CRM technology budget of 200,000, which is significant when comparing the results of the survey conducted only 12 months earlier. At the TFM 2003 event, a corresponding survey noted a 7% decrease from the previous year, while this year's figures have revealed a 2% increase.
This year's increase in budget can be seen as encouraging news for technology and software vendors, especially those providing CRM systems, customer data and analysis tools, and new media and web technologies, as these were the areas that respondents felt were most likely to attract spend in 2005.
Furthermore, respondents said they expect to spend a greater share of their total marketing budget on enabling technology, with 5% expecting to spend 50%-70% of their marketing budget on marketing-related and CRM technologies in 2004, and as much as 8% expecting to spend that amount in 2005. And, for the first time ever, all of the respondents (100%) said that they would be spending part of their budget on marketing-related and CRM technologies next year.
"Both the buzz of the show and the success our exhibitors achieved at the show reflected this increase in budget," commented Mark Snell, portfolio director for Technology For Marketing.
Some 70% of the event's visitors were of managerial level or above. Next year's event, Technology For Marketing 2005 will take place on 8th to 9th February at The National Hall, Olympia, in London.
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