The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising's (IPA) latest Bellwether survey recorded the greatest quarterly downward revision in the survey's nine-year history in Q4 2008 – the fifth successive quarterly reduction in marketing spend.
The IPA said it expected further cuts in 2009 as companies set their initial budgets for the year ahead below 2008 levels for the first time since the survey began.
Some 75% of companies thought financial prospects facing their industries had deteriorated compared with the previous quarter.
Only 7% of company reported an upward revision to overall marketing budgets, while 49% reported a decrease.
Main media advertising was the hardest hit, which includes print as well as broadcast sectors, although internet advertising also suffered a record reduction in spend in Q4.
President of the IPA Moray MacLennan said: "This Bellwether report suggests that adland in 2009 will be no place for the faint-hearted."
IPA Direct Marketing Group chairman Chris Whitson added: "The decrease is no great surprise. Undoubtedly, in the face of decreasing sales revenue, marketing budgets will fall.
"What this means for 2009 is hard to determine, but I believe we will see an increased concentration on customers as businesses focus on keeping them and generating greater levels of revenue from them," he said.
"This is direct marketing's greatest strength in the current climate and that, coupled with the maturing of the DM industry's digital capabilities, I hope, will see us through the worst of what lies ahead," added Whitson.
Bellwether survey reveals biggest fall in marketing budgets for nine years
The ability for direct marketing companies to retain - and increase - work for existing customers will be paramount in 2009 as last year saw marketing budgets take their biggest hit in nine years, according to the advertising industry's leading trade body.
