Marketolog (Moscow), No. 10, 2009

MARKETERS SAY WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ADVERTISING BUDGETS

Anna Izmailova, Market Communications Director of Stockholm School of Economics Russia - This year is a jubilee year for Stockholm School of Economics: the oldest educational institution of the capital of Sweden has turned 100 years old! Solemn celebration of the centennial jubilee of the school took place throughout 2009 in Sweden and in Russia and mass media covered the events in detail. It was not surprising that despite the condition of the economy in 2009 our advertising budget was increased significantly. If we speak about the general laws to which advertising planning is subordinated in Stockholm School of Economics Russia, we compose the media plan according to the principles of "high" and "low" season. Enlistment of students to Executive MBA programs is done twice per year. For us autumn is a season of high activeness when top and middle-rank executives make decisions on additional education and companies prepare budgets for the next year. During this period advertising expenses is maximal. Market activeness is a little smaller in spring and that is why the share of expenses of a spring advertising campaign in the overall budget is a little smaller than the share of autumn. Summer and autumn are traditional seasons of low advertising activeness. This is connected with rules of the market: potential participants of the programs think more about leisure than about education. Advertising expenses also have a trend of growth every year because there appear new programs and lines of activities that require additional coverage. Thus, this year we launched a new Executive MBA program in the Russian language for which we had composed a separate plan of release on the market.