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“Sea change” in marketing budgets??

In a small but possibly significant tidbit, Dave Kansas and his friends down at The Wall Street Journal hooked into a fun survey where they found:

Two-thirds of marketing bigs surveyed in December expect corporate entertaining budgets to be boosted “significantly” in the New Year, and sporting events, always popular with Wall Street, figure prominently in client-wooing plans. The survey of 313 marketing executives was conducted by consultant TSE Sports & Entertainment, whose chief executive, Robert Tuchman, expects “a sea change” in corporate entertaining after the past few years of dry crumpets and tap water.

For full details, subscribers can tune in to WSJ.com - Bids & Offers: I Must Be in the Front Row!.

So, what can it mean?   Hard to tell, but it does signal top execs are feeling more expansive, and at least might be willing to foot marketing bills that they themselves can see, hear, and taste.   I don’t however see this as having much trickle-down effect into increased overall marketing spend.   Tradeshows and other high profile sales events might see more funding, but we’ll have to track with this issue throughout the year.