Australia is about to go into a recession, we have been warned, we have been there before and know how it plays out. Albert Einstein once said “If you want to know the future, look at the past.”

So let’s have a look at the past.

Businesses who maintained or grew their advertising spend during recessions not only set the company up to survive the recession, but they thrived in the period that followed.

This result has nothing to do with the recession, it has everything to do with advertising share of voice. Simplistically, if you are the only brand in the market advertising and promoting yourselves, your brand becomes the only brand in the segment for the consumer.

While during the recession it is likely you will experience a reduced return on your advertising investment, you will likely increase market share, and once the economy improves your chance to maintain market share is strong.

The alternative is your brand goes dark, loses market share, loses customers to competitors and has to start again.

What are you going to do?