Life's not safe in
the creative fishbowl

77 percent of marketing executives say the slowing economy has moderately or greatly affected business in the past six months, but most say agency use has not changed.

Not yet, anyway, warns a Reardon Smith Whittaker study (via AdWeek), writes MarketingCharts.

The study, "2008 Client's Perspective on Economic Conditions," found that most marketers don't seem ready to make major adjustments to the level of their marketing activity, at least for now:

• 69 percent of respondents said there has been no change in their use of outside marketing services over the past six months:

• 76 percent do not foresee the number of agencies they use in 2008 changing (more than half use three or more agencies to satisfy their marketing needs):

• 60 percent say they are generally unlikely to look for a new agency in 2008, and 28 percent say they are very unlikely to do so:

About the survey: Reardon Smith Whittaker interviewed 202 marketing executives from different-sized companies ($50MM-$2B) in March '08. Among the largest industries represented were packaged goods (15 percent), manufacturing/distribution (18 percent), healthcare (9 percent), retail (9 percent), and travel and tourism (6 percent).