Digital Marketing Now:
Seven Strategies for Surviving the Downturn
By CEO Geoffrey Ramsey
November 2008
The First Place to Look
Copyright ©2008 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved.
Dear Reader:
This is the first major report or whitepaper I have written for eMarketer in about eight years.What compelled me to get
back in the saddle? Lots of things. But first a little personal perspective on the current economic crisis.
In June of 1981, I graduated from NYU with a bachelor’s degree and went immediately scouting for my first job—only to be stymied by a
miserable economy, which set my fledgling career back by about two years.That was recession No. 1.Ten years later in spring 1991, as I
was about to be married, I got laid off from my job working as an account manager at Ogilvy & Mather; I thus entered recession No. 2 of my
life. One full decade later, in January of 2001, I became CEO of eMarketer, only to watch our business—along with so many other Internet
plays—slide into the virtual abyss as the dot-com bust and subsequent September 11 tragedy unfolded.That was recession No. 3.
And here we all are, only seven years later, in the midst of yet another cyclical downturn.And none of us really knows where this is
heading or how fast it will get better.That’s the bad news.
The good news is that there are things marketers can do, steps they can take—even in this inhospitable market—that can help them
survive, and possibly even thrive, as they weather the storm.This whitepaper highlights some of the most compelling of those strategies
and tactics, many of which involve the Internet.
I am thankful for the many people who assisted me in completing this whitepaper, both those on staff here at eMarketer as well as those
on the outside. I give special thanks to Jim Spanfeller, CEO of Forbes.com, Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore, and Randall Rothenberg,
CEO of the IAB, who not only encouraged me to proceed, but also offered valuable insights as well.
If just one strategy outlined here inspires you to take action, I have done m