Channel 4 cannot have taken the decision to cut its marketing budget lightly. In its chief executive, Andy Duncan, it has a leader who, unlike some of his rivals, is fully aware of the potency of marketing.
Nonetheless, Channel 4 has had to make some tough decisions as it faces up to a future where its funding model is in doubt and it has to wrestle with the dilemma of delivering distinct public service programming without any guaranteed revenue streams.
But it is still surprising that the decision has been made at a time when it is the job of all media owners to listen to the advice of the IPA and show their confidence in the ability of marketing to deliver results by maintaining spends in order to encourage the advertisers that use their channels to do the same. Otherwise surely isn't Channel 4 sending out mixed messages and negating all the good work of Thinkbox?
