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Besides the "noisy" or "quiet" bankruptcy of large and famous companies many new formations with a wide range of activities were created in the advertising field in the past two years.

According to data from Media Services the last time there was a positive change in overall advertising spending was in 2007-2008, and the percentage was approximately 0.53. Since then the decline started: in 2009 advertising spending fell by 17.10 percent and in 2010 to this percentage is added another 14.69. 2011 ended with a negative number in the range of 15.55 percent, and if these rates are added, this shows that from 2009 until the end of 2011 advertising spending has fallen by 47.34 percent. This means that the advertising market has lost almost half of its revenue, a fact that does not leave much room for optimistic scenarios. Or maybe not?

In addition to the serious problems, the economic crisis created and prepared the ground for new business moves and during the last two years the map of Greek companies in the communications and advertising fields has entered a phase of reconstruction. Moreover, the new formations are much more flexible and primarily invest in skills and new technologies.

The situation of the market

The communications and advertising markets in Greece are passing through a stage of major changes caused mainly by three factors:

1) The deep recession and its effect on the budget of advertisers.
2) The increased distrust of consumers to the messages, which are being sent across.
3) The rapid pace of entry and response of social media.

The reduction of advertising budgets as a result of decreased sales and transfers of funds to activities that have an immediate effect on sales, poses a serious challenge for media and the advertising companies. Especially in media such as print media and radio, which are often used in addition to television, major cutbacks in advertising spending are registered.

In television the reduction of advertising costs is less because many advertisers focus most of their budget on television. For advertisers, who have a sufficient budget to achieve satisfactory results, television is, and will continue to be, an opportunity due to the significant cost reduction for advertising.

With regard to social media the trends to increase their advertising budget will determine the communications market in the future. Since not all attempts to develop social media activities are successful, the big chance for advertisers is to understand how social media is associated with the achievement of the marketing objectives of the organization and use them to reach consumers at times and places, which affect their purchasing behaviour.

Also understanding how social media function, in order to increase brand awareness, sales and profits and to improve customer loyalty, will help marketers to present more reasoned proposals for social media return on investment. This will facilitate managers as well in the decision to provide more money for advertising at a time when financial return is the main criterion for evaluation.

Advertising company of the future

The development of the advertising market inevitably affects the structure and skills an advertising company must have. It will not be enough for the advertising company of the future to help in shaping the strategy of the company or make good television commercials. It must combine skills from different fields, have ideas, which will encourage dialogue between the consumer and the brand in social media and offer innovative ways to create new channels for user interaction on and off line.