Q: Why do we communicators crave true benchmarking data?

A. Lots of reasons!

• To understand how we compare to our peers
• To get a sense of trends facing our function
• To see where peers outsource activities to a vendor
• To understand what new activities we should be taking on
• To make a confident case to company leadership for more resources or different allocation (as Mike recently said—it can help us make the case for a little more R-E-S-P-E-C-T!”)
• To plan for 2011 (yikes—it’s coming way too fast!)

CEC’s 2009 resource allocation benchmarks showed that communicators experienced a 14% decrease in budget and a 7% decrease in staff—with the largest cuts coming from corporate advertising (3.5%) and other “mass” channels.  As necessity often breeds innovation, it’s no surprise that numerous organizations have experimented with lower-cost communication solutions in the social media space.

The 2009 benchmarks also showed that while companies considerably cut their budgets for CSR programs, charitable donations, and corporate sponsorships, they put more resources towards communications measurement and CSR reporting. And now we have to ask ourselves, “Was that a short-term defensive play by Communications to demonstrate its impact, or is this a sign of a longer-term trend?”

CEC provides a one-of-a-kind Communications budget and spend benchmarking service exclusively for member organizations. CEC members: Submit your data by 7/30 and receive a customized report to help you defend your budget, identify specific areas for reallocation, and plan for 2011.

What communications activities have you invested more in this year? What activities are you still trying to get more resources for?