MediaPicks, an advertising and marketing media outlet operated by EYEZ, Inc. (headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Noriyuki Fukushima), conducted a survey of 168 advertising and marketing professionals on corporate budget policies and channel strategies, and has published an article summarizing the findings. In the advertising and marketing industry, optimizing channel strategies is becoming more difficult every year. As advertising costs rise and new channels emerge, companies often have to rely on intuition when deciding where to allocate limited budgets. The analysis found that the most common response for this term’s budget was “maintain current levels” at 42%. However, companies planning increases accounted for 24%, slightly exceeding those planning decreases at 19%, indicating a quiet polarization between companies taking an offensive stance and those taking a defensive stance. The survey also found that some channels ranked highly as both candidates for budget increases and reductions, showing that evaluations of the same media can differ sharply depending on industry and business model. Survey result summary: 1. “Maintain current levels” is the most common budget policy, but the market is effectively polarizing For this term’s marketing budget, the largest share of respondents, 42%, selected “maintain current levels.” However, in an environment where advertising costs continue to rise, even unchanged budget amounts can mean reduced reach and production volume in real terms. In that sense, “maintaining current levels” may effectively mean contraction. The 24% of respondents indicating an upward trend slightly exceeded the 19% indicating a downward trend, suggesting a quiet split between offensive and defensive companies. 2. SNS advertising tops the list of channels for increased spending, with strategies differing between B2B and B2C SNS advertising ranked first among candidates for increased spending or new adoption, with 64 votes. However, by